LAST EMAIL from Elder Tyler Garcia - June 4th, 2012

　
How are you spending your very last p-day in Georgia?

We went and had breakfast with the senior couple and we played a game with them. After we went to the church and we played a card game while two emailed.

Was it a fun card game?

It was. It's a good game. I'll show you guys when I get home.

Is it hitting you yet that you only have 2 full days left before you get to go to the Temple and then are on the plane?

Nah, it hasn't really hit me yet. I can't wait to go to the temple though. We went to Zed's last night. It was pretty cool. Ate dinner and played a couple games.

Elder Tyler Garcia

June 4th is my last p-day.
I'm coming home Thursday, June 7th!!!  :D

Emails from Elder Tyler Garcia

April 23rd -

My last companion is Elder Allen. He's cool. So I'm glad I'm not getting a robot missionary.

Thanks for Johnny's address.

Not much has happened this past week. None of our investigators came to church. I think they plan it out with the senior couples investigators. They'll all show up or they'll all won't show up it's weird, haha. Yesterday was ward conference and we kind of got a new investigator but we'll see how it goes. The couple that needed help we committed to baptism again. The wife was more hesitant than the husband but he didn't say anything. We told them to pray about it. We also saw two less-actives yesterday. One was a guy, he was real nice but he was like "I'm going to be honest with you guys...I'm a drunkard." He told us a little about himself and he wants us to come back. Other than that nothing else really happened.

Where is Elder Allen from? I'm glad you're ending your mission with a companion you like.

At least the drunkard was open and honest, that's a good sign.


I think from Utah. I'm not sure.

Yeah, I like him, he was pretty cool. I think there's hope for him. He asked us "Do you really want a drunkard like me in church?" and we said "Yep"

April 30th -

This past week we taught this girl and we committed her to baptism. It might be a little difficult to teach her in a way...because of some things. Bobby and Ronda, the couple who needed help, he wants to get baptized, I'm sure she'll be baptized sometime after that. Wednesday night we teamed up with two guys in the elders quorum and we saw a bunch of less-actives. The last guy that we saw was pretty legit, he was awesome. We went out inviting less-actives in the elders quorum and high priest for next Sunday. Elder Burns from the area seventy is coming to our ward to speak to the priesthood and such. Um...other than that, I think that's it. Hopefully three baptisms in May.

May 7th -

Saturday we got to see the Sacred Grove and the Hill Cumorah. And the store where the first Books of Mormon were printed. Attended Sacrament meeting in Palmyra then headed back to PA. Will do a little research then head for Philadelphia and Maryland. Not sure what happens after that.

That's pretty cool that you guys got to see all that. How did Aunt Charlotte like it?

This week has been pretty good. One of our investigators had a baptismal date but we're pushing it back because he doesn't think he'll quit smoking a week before that date. We have two more investigators. I think I said something about the girl. We taught her the second lesson on the Plan of Salvation. She asked a lot of questions. She liked it a lot better than what other churches teach about after life. We taught this older guy with his fellowshipper. Taught him the first lesson and he liked it as well. Now that we have to push back that one investigators baptismal date I don't think I'll see another convert baptism :'(

Good for the converts but sad you may not see them baptized! :(  I hope it happens before you leave.

Yeah, I'm hoping too.

Also, can you skype on your phone? I'll probably skype or call between 2 and 6pm my time.

That time should be good. Daniel's calling around 4 which is 6 your time. So maybe by or before 5 is better. I don't think I can Skype on this phone. It'll be good to talk to you Sunday. We're on the road right now to Philadelphia. I pulled over to answer your email.

Ok then. Can I get Kaleens number so I can call there?

May 14th -

We saw our investigator who's working on quitting smoking. He's doing well. I'm not sure how the wife is doing she doesn't say much unless we say something directly to her. We went over the baptismal questions with him and she would nod on some questions and wouldn't do anything for the other questions. Another investigator came to church yesterday, the only one that came. She really seemed to enjoy church. She hung out with the senior couple sister. They seemed to get along pretty well. During gospel principles we went over the Plan of Salvation and we had just taught her this last Tuesday. After class she came up to us and said that she has a bunch of questions...it might have been after Sacrament (because we have it last) I don't remember. She wrote them down and is going to save them for our lesson on Tuesday. We invited the senior couples to come as well because our investigator likes the sister. Our whole district did a service activity on Saturday morning. It was about fishing. A couple of us covered the entrance directing people where to park...it was so simple yet complicated for some people. Anyways we were doing that in the rain, it was more like sprinkling, then we left because we figured everybody came...we were wrong but anyways. After that I started to help fix the poles, help un-knot them and re-hook them and what not. Then we kind of just chilled, it was a nice day. That was pretty much the highlight of our week, also helping the AP's move the stuff out of the second senior couples apartment but there's no need to talk about that haha.

It was good to talk to you and everyone else. I feel like there's so much to do so little time.

Sorry, I told everyone I was going to land in Salt Lake around 4pm. I would land in Salt Lake around 4 Georgian time. Utah time it shows it would be 2:16pm...sorry.

May 21st -

It's getting harder to believe that it's down to just over two weeks! Even though I seem to talk about it just about every day. ha ha

It still seems like a long time to me.

We saw all our investigators this week. It looks like the girl is the closest to getting wet. We just have one more lesson with her. We have an appointment with her on Wednesday, we're going to give her a baptism date. The couple hasn't progressed too much since last week. Though the last two appointments we had with them I almost fell asleep haha. Our other investigator we didn't even teach anything...I guess we did in a way. He just asked a whole bunch of questions. We had a referral stand us up for the second time so I don't think I'll be calling her again. My companion is a pretty dominant speaker so I've been stressed this week. He doesn't like talking on the phone, which I don't get.

Yeah, I'll still have that last Monday as a p-day.

May 28th -

I said that because "everything happened at the end of my mission". I had companions whose family went on vacation and I thought something like that wouldn't happen with me but it did.

It's been pretty good this past week. We have a baptism this Friday which is exciting. I guess that's the most exciting thing to happen in the past week. It's the girl, well, she's 29 I don't know if you call her a girl or a lady or what. Anyways, Sunday she asked the member who invited her to church and kind of talked with her at her job to baptize and confirm her and he was pretty shocked and started crying, it was pretty cool. He's probably in his late 70's. Member's have the power and they don't realize it. All the people I taught on my mission that got baptized were from members or part-members. The couple we're teaching was from a member and they're planning on getting baptized. The other investigator we're teaching is also from a member. I've never had a baptism from tracting.

We had a zone p-day today up in Conyers that was pretty fun. We played basketball and dodgeball.

Email April 9, 2012

Hey, my mormon.org profile is updated. You can check it out. [In Search, put Ceres]

How was your Easter Sunday? Did you have a nice dinner with someone?

I don't think I told....maybe I did.... They reorganized the missions here and made a Utah Salt Lake City Central Mission out of part of Temy's and the South Mission. They had to rearrange the offices at the stake center (our building) to make room for the new mission office. We used to have Sister Missionaries who I never saw. Now we have Elders who were there yesterday but I had to leave right after Sacrament so I didn't get to meet them yet.

I didn't feel like doing anything for Easter but Kaleen wanted to bring over dessert so all of us were here around 7:30 except Temy. The YSA were doing something.

It was alright. We had it over at the senior couples apartment and the other senior couple was there as well. The Watsons who were in the archives got transfered up to Washington D.C. so they left this morning.

No, you never told me. That's pretty cool though.

Yeah, all of us were here, except Temy. Kaleen said around 7:30 and showed up about 7:45 and complained that Am was late...they showed up about 7:55. ha ha They all left around 8:30 or so, of course it was past Scotty's bedtime.

Oh, here's a story for you. John called me Saturday about Johnny's first email from the MTC. I guess Amy posted it on FB too. Johnny's p-day is on Friday, they were playing volleyball, Johnny spiked the ball real hard over the net and hit the other Elder across from him in the face.... it was David Archuletta! Can you believe that?!

You heard of him before you went on your mission, right? He's from Murray.

Well, they were pretty early for Mormon Standard Time.

Yep, that's my boy. Haha jk. that's a good mission story. I heard of David Archuletta before. That's funny. What's Johnny's MTC address?

Oh yeah. My companion sang a solo for the Easter program during Sacrament and this is the song.

But I think it's a good one to put on the blog.



"They heard His voice; They saw His face, The promised Savior come to earth in days long past,

They saw Him heal the sick, and cause the lame to stand,

They watched as wind and waves were stilleat His command, And though I did not see Him calm the raging seas,
His hand has calmed my troubled heart, and I believe.

They heard His voice; They saw His face, They heard his teachings of forgiveness, love and faith,

He blessed their little ones, He taught them how to pray, He fed the multitudes who hungered by the way,

And though I did not taste the bread He bade them eat, His word is manna to my soul, and I believe.

They saw Him scourged, And mocked to scorn,

They heard the angry crowd, They saw Him crowned with thorns,

They watched Him bend beneath our burden in the streets,

They saw the bitter nails that pierced His hands and feet,

And though I was not there to watch with them at Calvary,

My spirit weeps, I have not seen, Yet I believe!

They heard His voice, They saw His face, The risen Jesus, crowned with vict'ry o'er the grave,

And though I did not see His triumph over death, Though I did not see Him draw immortal breath,

I know He lived and died and lives again for me, My faith is sure, I have not seen,

yet I believe."

Elder T. Garcia

Monday, March 26th Email

Everything is alright. I'm just trying to make it by these next ten weeks...well at least 4 more weeks. Nothing happened this past week. Our top two investigators, it's the couple, the husband wasn't feeling well so we never saw them this week. We tried seeing less-actives this week but no one is home. We've tried to see people in the afternoon and in the evening but no one is home. Everybody's sick, everybody needs a ride to church, everyone is on probabtion, the members don't really help in anything, over half the ward are older members, this area is just pretty tough.

Elder Campbell is from West Jordan, UT. It's not really going ok, well, we get along but I'm going insane. I don't think I will survive if I stay with him another transfer. He's been out 13 months. He's by the rules probably like 95% of the time. I don't get how to teach these missionaries how to go by the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. A lot of missionaries who are by the rules ruin areas and people don't like them. I liken it unto the Pharisees and the Sadducces. You see, the Pharisees and the Sadducces were ALL about the rules and they totally over looked Jesus Christ. Everybody else went by the spirit and they recognized Jesus Christ when He came.

(Um, I don't think that should go in the blog.) (Sorry, Tyler, I like your analogy. Missionaries should ALWAYS go by the Spirit!)

So, I have thought about what to do in California. I really don't know. We should let the people of facebook decide. I bet a couple of people would "like" the status and I bet Tessie would comment haha.

Our investigator has some $$ left to pay off. Once he's done he can be baptized.

I guess that's it for now. We're saving miles for this last week because we have to go all the way up past Lilburn for a meeting, they won't let us write them off so it doesn't count against us. Well, I'm glad I'm leaving in 10 weeks, I feel sorry for some of the missionaries left who have to deal with some of the stuff that is happening in the mission.

-Elder Garcia

Emails Mar 5, 12, & 19

5th

Not much has happened this last week. We met with our investigators, the couple. They're practically the only ones haha. The other guy is still on probation so we still can't really do anything. So when we met with them we went over 1 Nephi 8. It went pretty well, the husband is still enjoying everything. Before we taught he asked us a lot of questions, it was getting intense. Nothing anti or bashing just more questions to get to know us, stuff about missionaries, etc. he was fascinated about everything. They didn't make it to church yesterday, the wife had to work and the husbands feet were swollen and hurting. We also had a barbecue cook out Saturday evening by the best cooks in the ward and it was a huge feast. Both the senior couple missionaries were there, plus the bishop, elders quorum president and wife, relief society & young men's president and son, one other couple and a less active, so 15 people were there in a tiny house. It was pretty crowded. Also at church there's a Filipino couple in our ward and their feeding us at the end of the month and I told him that my brother just had balut on his mission. Now the husband wants to make me one. So I might challenge Daniel now haha. That's pretty disgusting but then again I've had chicken feet, ox tail, pig tail and who knows what else Jamaicans and Nigerians put in their food. That was my week.

Well Daniel called his Filipino side. So I figured I might give it a try haha

I'm glad I don't have a Filipino side! Take the challenge in GA then.... you won't find Balut in this house! I'm setting down my foot on that one! ha ha

I don't know how I'll make it through two more tranfers. There's absolutely nothing to do down here unless I go out of the mission or go see recent converts or other members. We practically only have two investigators, I'm never going to tract again. Our district keeps to themselves now. I hope I get a cool companion next week that will keep me sane haha.

13 weeks, 2 transfers, 3 months, 1 general conference and 1 mothers day left to go.

12th

So Daniel is pretty sure he's getting transferred north (not necessarily Santa Fe).

That's cool that Daniel is finally getting transferred.

So yeah, my companion is going home and I'm pretty depressed. I'm really hoping that these 12 weeks will go by super fast. My new companion is Elder Campbell. I don't know where he's from. He was a Portuguese speaking missionary up in Roswell got switched to English and sent to me. I don't think he's as cool as a few of my last companions so that's why I'm depressed. I'll be getting a little bit of help so hopefully that will keep me somewhat sane.

Daniel asked if I had my bags packed...yep, I packed last night. Well, mostly everything, my proselyting clothes and scripture stuff is all that I use anymore. I have so much room left, especially if I send home a box or two. I bought those space bag things in my last area and they save a ton of room.

Also, do we have relatives down here? There's a park in Rex, GA called "Walter Estes park" and I found a street on our map that says "Estes street"

(They are....probably descendants from our first ancestor who came to Virginia in the 1600"s.  He had around 13 children and many of them moved further south.)

Oh ok, that's what I thought because the Estes trucking company is also in our area.

19th

(Got your Travel Itenerary for coming home.  Flying Delta, coming into SLC at 2:11 p.m. on June 7th.)

I'm glad it's Delta and a one way trip.

How did your week go?  Do you think this will be your last comp? How is he?

We're supposed to have another snow storm come in today and then it will gradually get warmer through the week and it should be in the 60's by Thursday, so I'll get to take Scotty outside. If I have enough energy I might walk him to the park, he'll love that! I saw that it's been in the 70's there. Are you feeling the humidity yet?

Daniel got moved a little further north, up to Las Cruces.  It's around 45 miles from El Paso.... at least it's away from the border!  He says he's covering two wards.

It's been in the 80's all week. I thought the same thing about the summer. I think it's going to be pretty bad. Good thing I won't be a missionary anymore haha. The humidity hasn't really hit yet but it's getting there.

But first a joke! What do you get when every car is yellow?...

I hope this isn't my last companion. He's not bad, he's a good missionary but....

Anyways, it wasn't too bad. We saw our investigators again. None came to church yesterday. I'm pretty trunky...it's inevitable. After ward council my companion and I went and sat down in the foyer. A couple minutes later this lady shows up at around 8:30. She asked where does everyone meet, what time it starts, etc. Anyways, we told her how everything went and then she told us that it was her day off. She said that she always passes the church building on the way to work. She then said to us that everytime she passed the church something inside her told her that she needs to go. She told us she always follows her feelings and came to church to follow that feeling. ELECT OR WHAT?!?! But guess what the best part is! SHE'S NOT IN OUR AREA!!! she's in Jonesboro's ward....gosh darn it.

I can't wait to see Scotty. 11 more weeks...but who's counting?...I AM! =D

Well...at least Daniel is out of El Paso right? So, I remember Daniel saying that there's 3% of members in New Mexico. A couple weeks ago I found out what the percentage of members are in Georgia. Guess what it is! It's like 1%!...give or take a couple tenths of a point. Anyways, I'm pretty trunky, and my companion makes it better...to be more trunky.

The answer to the joke: "POLLEN!"                    Pollen...because it's spring time.                                  Snow? Hopefully it'll all be gone when I get home haha. I'll try and bring some of this weather.

Just don't bring the humidity!

Emails Feb. 27, 2012

How did things go this past week? What are your plans for today?

I guess I was busier this week so it seemed like it came by faster ha ha.

I can't even remember what we did this last week, except for Saturday. We had two appointments with our investigators and a dinner/birthday party to go to. Our first appointment was with the couple that needed help. The husband is really progressing. He's read what we gave him to read and really enjoyed that. We taught them 3 lessons already. They came to church 3 times now. He cut his hair because it was long and he wanted to wear church clothes but he didn't have a tie. I gave him one of mine and he really liked it. We asked him if he wanted to get baptized and he said he would like to but wanted to know a little bit more before making the decision. The wife is a Baptist and she said she doesn't want to change but he really doesn't like her church. She'll get baptized after her husband gets baptized.

Our other appointment was with the guy that asked for the Prophet Biography book. He is loving the book.

I'm not sure what we'll do today.

I watched some of the videos you sent.

Why did you walk down a one lane dirt road? I didn't see any houses. Were there supposed to be houses back there? I would have thought you would ride your bikes.

hahaha, I tried to make it funny as possible. There was one house, the one where we were at. I didn't film it because I was trying to be funny because I said something about it at the beginning. The part that I showed the Penske truck there's a subdivision behind it. We locked our bikes there and tracted in the place for a bit before going to that one house. It was a less-active member.

Emails Feb. 20, 2012

I got a calling today....Cub Scout leader for Wolf. You think I can handle that?  ha ha

Actually, I can't believe as big as the wards are here that we are combined with the Meadows Ward for cub scouts. There's only 8 boys - 3 are Ridgecreek.

I've been telling people my youngest is almost 22 and coming home from his mission in June....it's been awhile since I helped in cub scouts, but it should be like "riding a bike" as they say.

But I was never a cub leader....officially.

I guess it's been 11 years since you left cub scouts, but why does it seem

so much longer than that? It just seems like forever ago you were that little.
Wow, that just blows my mind, because 11 years really isn't that long.

So how was YOUR week?

I think you can handle that. It comes from the Lord.

A lot of stuff happened in those 11 years. So it seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that it happened.

So this is what happened during last week. So two Sundays ago we kind of "chastised" the ward about dinners. So this last week got filled with dinner appointments and this week as well. But this past week we've been getting a lot of phone calls...not just for dinners but for appointments and other stuff like that. So I've been pretty stressed this whole last week. Yesterday didn't help at all. We had a zone conference with Elder Gavarrett of the Presidency of the Seventy and the day seemed to take forever. I don't mean to put down a general authority but he was monotone and he had a thick Spanish accent and we were there for four and a half hours, it was hard for me to concentrate. Other people spoke as well it was just a long and boring day. We got lost driving through Atlanta...oops  ;D

Emails Feb. 13, 2012

How did your week go?

It went alright. One of our investigator’s aunts died and he was pretty upset. We saw a less active lady who knows my companion. Her sister is in the Monroe ward and that's where my companion served. He's good friends with that family in Monroe. The Less active sister even took us out to eat, which was pretty cool. We told the family that and they were shocked. They said that she's never done that with any missionaries, she won’t even answer the door when they come by. We also saw a couple that’s investigating, kind of. I would say now they are. They came to church last week, didn't make it this week because of health issues. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the husband was really excited about it. He told us that this is what he wants. It was pretty cool but that was basically all that happened.

That must have been fun, to babysit your grandson on your birthday, I'm glad you liked the birthday card I sent you. Man, all these people that you guys are meeting are all from Georgia! Ha ha. I did get your last letter and I was going to reply in an email.

I was asking if you gave out my address because a friend sent a letter directly to me and I didn't know how she got it, unless I did, but I don't recall doing such a thing. Maybe the PO is returning mail on purpose and the system is not messed up. I think we're at "war" with them ha ha. We were told that the PO was going to stop forwarding mail. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe because they're going down the drain and losing money, then we were told we're within our rights to get mail forwarded.

That's funny because I do feel like I've been forgotten, not necessarily from the ward. Friends have stopped writing and I mailed John and Johnny back but I haven't got anything. I did get mail from a couple ward members and I wrote them back. But I just don't really get anything anymore. I don't really care I'm coming home in 3 and half months ha ha.

So you got the letter from the mission. I thought they were going to send it out beginning of next month. Were you still planning on coming down? I'll still be a missionary if you come down and tour the mission. I just figure it's easier to get released then come back then we could go other places.

So, Daniel's new companion is from Roy, UT. My companion now and my last one, their family moved to Roy. He moved from Ogden.

My companion wants to know if his name is Kyle Stanger? Well that's kind of funny how both our companions are from the same town ha ha.

No, Daniel says it’s not Kyle.

As much as I would like to come out for your farewell testimony meeting it will probably be better to wait till July then, then we can travel and see more of Georgia.

Stanger’s were in my companion’s last ward. He says that there is a bunch of Stanger’s in Roy.
Well supposedly the wards letters got sent back, so I don't know.
Yeah, it just seems like a better deal to just wait a little bit. I'm pretty sure I can get buddy passes to come back to Georgia so the trip out here would be free.

Emails from Feb. 6th

(We're trying to comprehend the distance to certain places.) Ceres to San Diego is about 7 hours.

That's what I couldn't comprehend when I got here. How small the state is. Before the dedication of the Atlanta temple members were going to Alabama and South Carolina and I thought they were all crazy to drive that long but it's only like 3 hours one way.  It's takes us 30 minutes to get to Ellenwood, it's on the other side of the ward.

I really didn't care who won the Super Bowl, just watched mainly for the commercials. I didn't think any of those who super great either.   It was a good game though, scores kept going back and forth, but the Giants finally took over at the end and they won 21 to 17.

The last time they played each other at the super bowl was 2008 and Giants won 17 to 14.

How was your week?

No one down here likes the Patriots; everybody was going for the Giants. Also, did you know that "Gone with the Wind" was about Jonesboro, GA? They have a museum about it and everything down here.

The week went good this time. On Saturday we had two good appointments. In the morning we went to see that couple who needed help. Bishop was also there. We taught the Restoration and it was pretty awesome. We invited them to church and they actually came. I asked them how they liked it and they said they wanted to come back next week as well. We also saw the investigator who we had trouble getting to church. Now it's not really a problem because he's getting up and he came 3 times now. He has a super strong testimony and he wants to start having a Family Home Evening with his kids. He's really working on changing his life around, it's pretty cool.

Awesome! Sounds like you might have some more baptisms before you leave.                                 That's funny that they're for New York, but I guess they're happy now.                                                  
I didn't know that. I knew it was near Atlanta or in Atlanta. Did you ever watch "Gone With the Wind"? I don't remember you watching it at home. I have the two VHS set, I don't know if I even opened it yet.

Yeah, hopefully. The one investigator wants to get baptized on Feb. 18th but he's on probation and I know most probation you can't get baptized until after it's over but he didn't do anything serious. I need to talk to P-Dub about it.

Yeah, especially since both are northern states. Patriots are more north I guess.

No, I never watched it but it's big down here.  After I got here and heard about it I want to watch it now.

It's funny how they say that the Post office is practically going out of business and they're going to cut people and all this stuff. The Post office isn't hurting down here. All the ones I've been to in my area is always packed.

I went to the Riverdale PO and I think I sent a package Friday or Saturday and they said it would get there Monday and I thought that was pretty fast maybe that's normal. Just to let you know the Riverdale PO is out of the mission...oops, oh well.

Haha, it's the closest one to us and it's right on the other side of the boundary line.

Emails Jan. 30th

How are you doing? How did your week go? What's the news about transfers?

I'm doing alright. This week I hit 20 months. I guess I'm partly sad due to the fact that I'm almost done with my mission.

Last Sunday we went to Zed's house. I got in trouble but not really. Our zone leaders called me because the Stockbridge elders told on me. When we were at Zed's, Zed said that he wanted to do a FHE with us and I guess he told the Stockbridge elders that too so they must have told our Zone Leaders that I was just over there. Anyways the ZL's called me because I didn't ask for permission to go over there and that I need to, that's why they called me. I don't think I'll ask for permission anyways because I'm always denied so there's no point in asking.

Also, our investigator came to church with us again, he also brought his son with him. Yesterday was stake conference, it was broadcasted from Salt Lake. It was pretty good, at least the parts I paid attention too.

So transfers came. Looks like I'm staying. I guess I won't kill off my companion. He's getting transferred to Athens. My new companion is Elder Christiansen. I'll kill him off because it's his last transfer too. I guess that's another part why I'm a bit sad. I thought I would kill off Elder Rima. I don't really like when I get a new companion but oh well, I'll get over it. Elder Rima was a good companion we did get along, it was fun.

Yeah, we don't get fed as much down here. Last week we had a dinner ever night but other than that it's probably like once or twice a week.

I know. It's amazing at how time flys!! Haha

I want to be there for your testimony meeting, but I guess if you want to go back in July I'll save my money for that. Are you sure you want to go in July? Are you choosing the most humid month or is every month just like that?

Do you know your new comp? Will he be ok since it's it's his last transfer? Wow, we have 3 or 4 families of Christiansen's in our ward....but no sons in GA. My visiting teacher is one.

You want to come down to Georgia for my last Sunday? I thought it would have been easier to come back here so I wouldn't be a missionary anymore and to follow the rules. I can probably get buddy passes. A recent convert of mine works for Delta. I don't know if July is the most humid month, I thought it might be August. But when it gets hot it stays hot no matter when it starts. The weather is pretty weird down here. It'll be hot in June too. Last year I think summer hit in April.

Stockbridge is in our zone. It's just the next district over. I've been through Atlanta a couple times but not on purpose.

I don't really know him. Elder Rima does because they came out together. He says he's pretty cool so I'm not too worried. Elder Christiansen is from Utah(shocking) but I think he's from somewhere north of Salt Lake.

No, I meant your farewell missionary testimony meeting you have the night before you leave, so it would be on Wednesday night. I'll have to ask all the Christiansen's if they have a relative missionary coming home from GA in 6 weeks. ha ha


Oh, yeah we have that down here at the Mission Office. I don't know if President and Sister Wolfert do anything special. Did I tell you that we're able to go to the temple again? Well the departing missionaries at least. Transfer day they take the departing missionaries to the temple. It's funny that they'll take us to the temple. I live right down the road from the airport, I can practically take myself to the airport but we have to go back to Lilburn.

Oh yeah...is Daniel getting transfered?

No. His comp is going north, maybe to Santa Fe, he didn't really say where. But he said some Spanish Elder is going there to train. He has several families he's teaching and one appointment tomorrow morning he doesn't want to cancel. I guess the missionaries left today a day early, so he's without a comp and supposed to join up with some elders from another district and he doesn't want to because he's doesn't want to cancel that appointment. I'll send all that to you so you see what all he said.

Did you get my last letter? You should have gotten it Friday or Saturday maybe.

oh ok

Yes, I did get your last letter. I can't mail people yet cause I have to use my last stamp. I have to send the milage report for the car to the mission office.

It sounds like C1 is still shrinking. I think people are moving in, but the families aren't are big as the ones that moved out. Hopefully the Senior couple that are working with the inactives will have better success. I hear they are doing wonderful things and are getting some less-actives back to church.

The ward sounds pretty small. Smaller than the Flint River ward. It's kind of sad.

Yeah, I think it's even smaller since you left.

Sister Lambert and Sister Hassard sent me letters and I can't remember who said it but one of them said that I was still the "star" of the ward. So I guess when I left people were like "oh, Elder Garcia's gone, there's no point in staying here." hahaha jk.

I heard they won't combine wards that are practically branches because there's a lot of less actives. That's why the Flint River Ward is still a Ward because there's a ton of less actives.

I don't really want to give my homecoming talk in Utah but I also don't want to go back to California.

Which reminds me. I do need more stamps, I'm good on envelopes. That's good that the work is progressing in Ceres.

I still have to write back some 1st ward people.

-Elder Tyler Garcia

Emails Jan. 23rd

(On news about Russ Smith)

That's good he's doing well.

Not much has happened this week. We contacted a referral yesterday. I don't get people sometimes. There's a member in Fayetteville (I think) gave us a referral for these people who want help. So this member is telling their friends that the church helps people, gives them money and food. The member told us not to teach them but to only help them. We told our bishop what happened and I think he said he'll talk to that bishop [about] what happened, I'm not sure. So we go over to this referral's house and we explained to them how we can't help them and how we're only here to teach. We told them that our bishop can help with the food part but they have to come to church. Everybody needs help down here, it's frustrating because all everybody wants is money and food, especially money and we can't give them money. Then they get all upset and leave, they probably get turned off by the church because we can't help them. They say that no other church can help them either.

Did you get the Jerry "Garcia" ties from the Mottisons? She said that Kent wanted her to get the "Garcia" ties for you guys, and not any other kind. It was a special gift for you and Daniel....those "Garcia" ties.

Yeah I got it. There's a member in Snellville who loves Garcia ties, that's all he wears. I never even heard of Garcia ties until the first time I went over to their house for dinner.

It's a nicer tie than some of the ones I've seen from the member. haha

I'm pretty sure I sent them [Mottison's] a letter back.

I'm not saying that the ties the member showed me were ugly, they were just crazy looking, wild.

Today (Sunday) was the football playoffs. Ravens lost to the Patriots 20-23, so the Patriots will be going on to the Super Bowl. NY Giants at SF against the 49ers....I'm feeling sick! 9ers lost 20 to 17 in overtime. So close....so much tention, blah. So it'll be the Patriots against the Giants on Feb. 5th.

That's good that the Ravens got that close. Maybe next year the 49ers will get there hopefully. I'm glad they got this close. Next year they need to get to the super bowl. SF Giants won the world series last year, it would be cool for the 9ers to get to the super bowl so San Francisco can be on top of things.

I think maybe the Patriots want a rematch for what happened a few years ago when they both played each other in the Super Bowl haha.

How do we find you on Mormon.org?

In the search bar you can put in "Ceres" and I'll be the only one up :'(

I have a pretty popular name so it'll be harder that way [to search by name]. Mormon.org tells us not to put up our last name on our profile, security reasons.

-Elder Garcia

Emails Jan. 9-Jan. 16

We've only seen one referral from Gladys Knight but we don't think they are interested. Our one investigator finally came to church, though he was pretty bored. He knows it's true but finds it boring. He wakes up early these days. So now we can get him to church.
We're probably going to be playing basketball in a short while. I heard there was rain but not the lightning. I haven't seen a good lightning storm is a good while. The wheather has been pretty different lately.

The Spanish Elders have arrived. So I'll probably be getting off.


Emails from Jan. 16th

I hope Brother Smith is doing well.

We went and saw a recent convert a couple times during the week to see how she's doing and we read the Book of Mormon with her. We also saw the investigator, who wants to come to church, he came two Sundays ago, I don't remember if I told you that or not but he came. We saw him this week and when he came to church, it was Fast Sunday, he said it was boring so when we saw him we talked about church and reverence and why it's important. We also gave him a blessing. He found out he's diabetic. After we gave him a blessing we went home and a couple minutes later he called us saying he got a job. He's been going through a lot and I don't really want to explain. He's still going though a little tough time though. Those were the highlights of our week.

I don't think I'm getting transfered. My companion is going home after this next transfer. I think I'm going to die in Flint River. I only had one area for 6 weeks the others I was there for months.

-Elder Garcia

Jan. 2, 2012

How are you and how are things going?

Things are pretty good. New Years Eve was crazy though.

We were with the senior couples in our apartment complex and we played games and talked. One of them said that Atlanta was going to do fireworks. So when midnight came I walked outside. Our apartment is at the bottom of the complex. It's kind of like a bowl. So I walk outside and all of a sudden I feel like I'm in a war zone. Literally! All around us fireworks are going off. Not in our apartment complex but around it. So I'm standing there looking towards Atlanta to see if I can see fireworks but I can't. So while I'm in this firework war zone there's a new kind of firework. Guns were going off. Everywhere. Guns and fireworks all around us. It was pretty cool. I like Atlanta.

Sounds cool, but dangerous! Hope they didn't use real bullets!

Murray had fireworks, too. I could hear them from my room and Temy's. I didn't go outside to look for them though.

It was boring here. No one came over. So I just worked on genealogy and watched a little of the parties on tv.

I'm sure they were real. We didn't see any fireworks either. What's Temy's plan? You said he might not stay home very long...or something like that.

How many missionaries are serving from that ward? I got the cards from the ward, well technically from the young women, on Friday. It was nice but it was a little weird since I don't know any of them.

I had another thought but I can't remember now. I probably should get off for now. There's only two computers to use, one is super slow and the other one there's something wrong with it. I'm on the only good computer. There's 5 other elders that need to email. I'll probably get back on later.

Ummm, I don't know what his plan is, except to take some home study courses.

I think there's only 2, and one just got his call to ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK. He goes in the end of March. That'll make 3.

I thought the YW were going to write letters. Daniel got his on Wednesday. He wants to know if there are any short Laurels that will write to him. LOL He was disappointed there were no letters.

Yeah, they don't know you either, so they may feel a little awkward writing.

Daniel and I? haha jk, that's cool.

I thought about asking about them writing me too, but I decided it was probably best to let it go.

I counted 13 total YW. Uh, they can write if they want, but it might be a little weird. I would even think for Daniel since he's like 6 years older then them. It would be nice to get more letters though.

[More about the fireworks]

When I walked outside I went down a little bit and there was a pretty big bang, and after that I got a little nervous so I quickly went back inside.

-Elder Tyler Garcia