SEP 5TH - SEP 19TH

SEPTEMBER 5TH
So, we had a baptism on Friday.  Our bishop counted 150 people at the service.  The chapel was pretty well filled.

We taught our part member family the commandments and the nine year old boy asked in the middle of the lesson when he could be baptized.  We'll talk about it more when we go see them next.  So far the two oldest kids want to be baptized.  The mom is close to deciding.

SEPTEMBER 12TH
When are transfers?
September 28th
I think I have the same transfer cycle as Daniel.  Since he went into the MTC the three weeks that our new missionaries went into the MTC.

(Minnie, our cat, is staying in a kitty kennel while we find a place to live.  There is an orange cat in the kennel that is waiting to be adopted.  He has Tyler's middle name.)

That's good that Minnie's fine and somewhat enjoying the Cat house (kitty kennel).  If you do get "Sebastian" I don't know if I would be calling him that.  That's a little awkward saying my middle name all the time haha.

The last girl that got baptized was a freebie, we didn't teach her.  Mostly just the part member family we're teaching.  The two older kids are close to baptism but we feel we are close with the wife.

SEPTEMBER 19TH
Everything's good.  We've been mostly trying to work with less-actives.  We had a meeting with the ward council a couple weeks ago and we identified all the less-actives/part members and we've been trying to contact those.

That's good that you got a place now.  Thanks for the pictures you sent me.

-Elder (Tyler) Garcia

August 9 - 15

Companion - Elder Asher

I took videos of South Gwinnett's [High School] "dancing" band and when they came into the field I thought, "Wow, I am not in the west anymore" hahahaha

[By this I guess you mean they weren't that good?  Or they are way better?]

Well, they weren't that good.  But it was more of a culture shock I guess.  When I watched the movie Drumline I could believe that's how they did it here in the South, but when I watched South Gwinnett play it was hard to believe that's exactly how they do it in the South.

So is Daniel excited to be getting to Nuevo Mexicano?

[Yeah, he's super excited]

Thats good that he's excited.

Transfers this week - we're both staying . . . .

I'm going to try and send stuff home.  Like shoes (you'll get why), general conference cases.  I bought a CD holder case thing so its easier to pack, and pictures and videos.

We don't teach as much as the Salt Lake Mission.  P-days are tough, school just started, us and the Centerville Elders are like cut off from the rest of the zone and we're on bikes.  Centerville is in a threesome and they have to bike to the library and it takes them forever to email.

[Saturday, Elder Ballard and Elder Gaye(?) spoke to the missionaries.]

No time to take pictures.  Elder Ballard and Elder Gaye(?) had to leave and go do the same thing for the Atlanta Mission.  We only got to shake his hand.  Elder Ballard broke his toe so he's been limping.

Elder Garcia

August 1 - August 8

(From July 24th)
          From Tyler to Kaleen:

                 A year goes by fast, by the time Daniel hits his year mark I'll

                 be home!  It's neat to say huh? A brother going out each year

                 and one coming back each year.

          Kaleen to Tyler:

                 That is weird to say about a year from now.  Yeah that will

                  really go by fast!  Also, little Scotty could be walking by then!

          Tyler to Kaleen:

                  I'm now at the point where I'm (almost excited) to go home

                  but I'm glad I'm still here on the mission.

(August 1st) [Mom's responses/additions in Purple]

From Kaleen to Tyler:

     Here's a story for you -

            Wednesday night [after Daniel was taken to the MTC]

            a bat flew in through the fireplace! Dad caught it.

[up in the corner of the living room with a rubber glove, standing

on a chair - Scott took pictures and Artem threw it out the back door] 

            I should upload the picture and send it to you 

            (if you want to see it). Ew it was so gross!

            Then on Thursday night I was on the computer and I

            heard this noise and I thought someone was trying to open

            the back door.  So I went into the kitchen to turn on the 

            light and another bat flew over the top of my head!

[probably the same bat looking for revenge!]

             I ran

            upstairs to wake up Scott.  It took us a long time to catch

            it. It actually landed in the wooden bowl on top of the

            cupboards by the sink.  Scott put a cookie sheet over the

            top and we ended up letting it go outside [again!].  That bowl is 

            going in the garbage. Turns out the fireplace vent got open

            somehow.  Crazy huh?

Tyler's response to Kaleen:

        That's pretty cool.  Hahahaha I pictured father totally being
asian/ninja catching it while it flew out of the fireplace.  I do want
to see it.  You know what I pictured when the bat was in the bowl?
I pictured you getting Scott and you two popped out your guns and 
shooting the bat in the bowl.  hahaha

August 8th
         August already!
I know...10 Months!!! but who's counting?  I figured it was easier to 
write back in an email [because] I'm two weeks behind in my journal 
writing and it's hard catching up.
The week has been very slow. We had two teamups with the members 
and one solid appointment.  Hardly any dinner appointments as well but 
I didn't worry about that.  We have a good amount of investigators to 
teach but the only problem is, is to get in with them.
Yeah, President Wolfert is a good mission president.  It'll probably be 
a while before I get used to it.
Transfers are on August 17th.  So I think Daniel and I have the same 
transfer cycle. It's a five week transfer because last transfer was 7.
I like the ties.  Especially the lime green one!  I thought Temy was going 
to send me his plane tie? [maybe a month before he's off his mission].
The new drop-off [at the MTC] is not fair!  They broke tradition! oh, 
well what can you do I guess.
Hahaha that's pretty funny that Daniel tried to find girls to write to him.  
Daniel and I aren't lucky like Temy is haha.

Elder Garcia 

July 25, 2011

I asked about Plantains, which he said he didn't care for a few weeks back. They look like a large banana. They are really popular in the south.

His answer:

It's in the squash family.

Plantains are alright now, after you eat [them], after awhile they're not bad.

From a resent letter:

Elder Asher [my new companion] is from Burley, ID [he was old companion in the MTC].

Here's another [hymn] that every so often we'll sing at Zone Conferences. Some words have been changed a tad bit.

1st verse -

*We have been born, as Nephi of old, to goodly parents who love the Lord.

*We have been taught, and we understand, that we must do as the Lord commands.

(Chorus) -

*We are as the army of Helaman.

*We have been taught in our youth.

*And we are now the Lord's missionaries to bring the world his truth.

2nd verse -

*We have been saved for these latter days to build the kingdom in righteous ways.

*We hear the words our prophet declares: "Let each who's worthy go forth and share."

(Chorus) -

3rd verse -

*We know his plan, and we are prepared, increase our knowledge through study and prayer.

*Daily we'll learn and we have been called to take the gospel to all the world.

(Chorus) -

Elder Garcia

July 11th & 18th

Well, I blew it!  I fell behind on keeping up Tyler's blog.  It's caught up now!  See below for other resent messages from June and early July.

July 11th

I sent Tyler the game Daniel played on everyone on Facebook on Tyler's Birthday (7th).
If you missed it it was pretty funny. Everyone thought Tyler was really on Facebook
(Daniel has been watching it for him while he's been on his mission.)

Tyler's comment:
hahaha that's pretty good

President Wolfert's here. The whole mission is going to be at transfers. I don't know
if President Wolfert is going to change how we do transfers or not so far it seems the same.
I never got a call saying I'm going [to be] Senior Companion so so far it looks like I'm still a junior.

(He got 3 ties for his birthday)
I did like the ties. I can only wear them on Sunday's though and zone conferences.
They're all silk and the polyester ties are better in the heat.

July 18th

It's fine. (about not being able to wear the ties everyday).

I really like the solid purple tie. I've been trying to collect solid color ties on my mission...
so far I have orange and purple.

My last comp was good and all. There were just some things I couldn't stand, he was very
competitive and had that kind of pride.

The mission fasted for President Wolfert and it seemed like a fast recovery.
(Explaining something I didn't quite understand.)

Guess What! my new companion isn't "new" at all! He's my MTC Companion, now I get to
spend more time with him! No, I'm not even senior this time.

If Daniel meets a sister missionary in the MTC named Sister Richards, her family is in my
ward. She has short blonde hair.

Is Daniel excited? nervous? Has Temy been filling him in with stuff? It sounds like a fun week.
(In Utah - before Daniel goes into the MTC).

Elder Garcia

June & July

June 20th ~Friday was our last day with President King, Sister King, and Connor. They leave next week.  They live in Bountiful so if we move we'll be neighbors!
I don't really know what else to say, I'm still alive and well, trying to survive the heat or I should say humidity.  Hope everyone is good back home.

I just remembered.  You looked for a Town home and they're called Stone Creek or was it the ward? I can't remember but I kind of laughed at it.  The apartments I'm in right now is called Stone Creek (on the Green) as well.

June 27th
I have their (the King's) home address but not on me.  I think they're more in the middle or closer to the other side of Bountiful.  I'll give you the address in a letter.  I forgot what ward they were in too. They were supposed to go home today but it looks like they'll be here for another couple weeks.  I don't know if you got President King's email for that.

I thought you had already left (for Oregon), I have no concept of time out here.  I was going to send Sammy a letter (but I don't really know what to say) then I remembered she was going with you guys to Oregon.  Speaking of cousins, did you ever get my email a long time ago that there were Estes' in the Webb Bridge ward?  I asked him about his genealogy and he said he didn't really get that far into it, he said that most of his ancestors he found were from Florida, Main and Russia...maybe I already told you that, I can't remember.

Thanks, I hope it'll be good like in Coal Mountain where we played baseball against another ward but I really don't think that will happen.  I hope you have a good 4th of July as well, I don't know if you'll still be in Oregon but still!

July 5th
I heard that President and Sister King were going to leave today...well on a Tuesday, nobody was sure if it was today or next Tuesday.  We were just told do our President's letter to President Wolfert.

Yeah, I'll probably stay in this area for awhile.  Transfers aren't till next week.  It was a pretty good P-day too. (On Monday, July 4th).

For the 4th of July we went with two other elders and a family from their area to Stone Mountain.  We just hiked up the mountain and took pictures. We also took pictures of the carving on the side of Stone Mountain.  I'll attach a picture of the pride the South has for the Civil War.  From Left to Right is: Jefferson Davis , Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson,  Anyways we did that for a few hours and went to the members home and was there all day.  It was pretty neat.  Oh and the members and friends and neighbors, (some were members, some were not).
But one use to be in the Modesto 3rd ward and I talked to the wife for awhile.  She asked me to ask you or maybe anyone who was in the Modesto 3rd ward before Ceres ward was created, so in the 80's if you know Mike and Pam? Boyles?  She remembers Harpers and a Bishop something that starts with an S I think.  She said that Pattersons and Berryhills sound familiar and she definitely remembers Stones.  Anyways they live in the Lawrenceville ward.  So moving on it was a pretty good day, I took a lot of videos of the what-would-be-illegal-fireworks-in-California, it was pretty cool.  Anyways that was our fun day for the 4th of July.  Hope it was good in California.

Elder Garcia

My appologies to everyone for not keeping up with the posting of Tyler's letters.  I will do better from now on.
You will find new postings below for all of April up to today.  Start with April 4th towards the bottom and work your way up.  Enjoy!