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.