Monday, December 12, 2011

It's hard to do things. We're burning up our miles fast and our referrals are never home but we just had a baptism, that's good. That's practically it for our week, unless I'll remember something later.

We're going to plan on burning up more miles to go up to Conyers. Kind of a zone p-day, they want to do this big tie trade-off/basketball, but I'm probably just going to get back on the computers. I wrote about Zed's brother in a letter.

No snow yet. We haven't had any snow flurry’s or ice storms yet either, I'm just guessing that it's because we're south of Atlanta and it's warmer here then it was when I was in Alpharetta.

At least there's no humidity. The humidity is what makes the winters here hurt. You can layer all you want but it'll bite right through.

There's a member, I think in the Spanish branch even though he doesn't speak Spanish but his wife is Spanish, he's diabetic so is his parents and he just gave me two bottles of Novolog.  They use the pump and they were kind of chastising me about not using it...but they weren't all that serious.

I forgot to mention that we had dinner with them.  They wanted to feed all the missionaries in the Jonesboro and Flint River ward and they want to do it again, I think this week.

All on the same night? Or just through the week?

All on the same night. There's actually eight:  three of us, two English in Jonesboro, three Spanish in Jonesboro.

Sounds like you have a big feast then?!

We did, she made Tortes, it's a sandwich that's pretty good.  It doesn't help though when you've eaten a lot that day to begin with, ha ha. 

What do you do for lunch today since you're going out of town?

We're going to go to Zaxby's with the Jonesboro elders on our way to Conyers

Zaxby’s must be a southern thing. I'll have to google it and check it out. It must be good if you all want to go there.

Yeah it was pretty good.  I had like two or three of them, it was way too much.

Zaxby's is a southern thing, I like Chick-fil-A better though.  Everyone in the district is a Zaxby's person.

I just read a little about it.  So each restaurant has a theme. What did you eat that you had two or three of?

I had two or three Tortes.  At Zaxby's I got a kickin' chicken sandwich.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Do you know about what time you’ll be calling on Christmas Day yet?

I guess it'd be after 4 my time.

So Wednesday is transfers.  What have you heard?  Is your three-some changing?

We're going back to two.  It's just going to be Elder Rima and me.  Our next zone conference is in February.

We haven't been able to do much.  We're trying to save miles.  We have a baptismal commitment on Jan 7, but I don't think it's going to happen.

It should be nice, everyone is just having Sacrament meeting.  What time do you have Sacrament?  I forgot, are you covering just one ward, or do you have more?

We have Sacrament at 10:50.  We only cover one ward.

Are you going to someone's house right after Sacrament?

Yeah, we're going to a family’s house at 2:30 and then we have dinner at 6.

I'm calling around 4 my time.  A couple of us are probably heading to the mall right now.  I think we're coming back.

-Elder Garcia

Emails Dec. 5th

Monday, December 5, 2011

Yep, Johnny got his call Friday.
He's going to........Argentina Buenos Aires West!
(Tyler's cousin)

Why does Johnny have to ruin the traditions of our family? Why can't he have an English speaking mission like the rest of us? Hahaha, it's cool, I'm excited for him, but not really, I hoped he'd come to Georgia, but it's still cool.

How was your week?

I was just comparing temperatures and you are still the warmest in the 50's.

Daniel is almost up there, and we're freezing in UT!
I'm glad we didn't find a place in Centerville after all. They had winds last
Thursday up to 102 mph. A lot of trees, fences and you name it was blown
down or blown away. They were without power over 72 hours.
The big pine tree in Kaleen's back yard that was near their neighbor’s house
fell. Thank goodness it didn't fall on either house. Farmington had winds
almost as bad as Centerville. They cancelled church today (Sunday) so
everyone could prepare for the big winds they are supposed to get Sunday
night and Monday.

It's been in the 60's a lot, too. It's taking a little longer to get cooler here but I'm not complaining the weather is so nice, I'm still in short sleeves.

Wow, did everybody stock up on milk and eggs?

If he [Daniel] calls [around] 6 or 7 your time then I definitely couldn't call. We're going over to the member’s home at 2:30, I don't know when we'll eat. I'll say 7 or 8 my time for now, I'll get back to you later on that.

The week was pretty good. The Christmas Devotional was pretty cool, especially the video they showed during President Eyring's talk. We also went to Zed's [a resent convert of Tyler’s] and we taught his brother and sister-in-law. Zed wanted specifically me to teach his brother and he thought it would be cool if I baptized him as well. They're an awesome family. It was a bittersweet moment when I saw Gabriel (the baby) and how much he's grown when I last saw him. Everything just seems so different. Super nice house, the two kids gotten bigger. Same family though, they haven't changed. That was pretty much the highlight of my day.

We had a baptismal interview with one of our investigators with one of the Mission Presidents Counselors. He got here when I was in the middle of writing back. He told us he just got called to be a Mission President! He's going to serve a Spanish Mission so the first thing that came to my mind was Argentina? But he doesn't know yet.

-Elder Garcia

Monday, November 21, 2011

How did things go this past week?

Things have been slow this past week. I've been a bit sick, just coffing mainly. Then two days ago Elder Rima got sick.

I forgot to mention that Gladys Knight came to town. She did this fireside type thing this last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was in Tucker so it was out of the mission. We haven't gotten any referrals yet from it. It was pretty upsetting to begin with. At the beginning I think only Lilburn, Roswell and Atlanta Stakes were invited maybe another stake was invited too I don't remember. The Conyers stake was not invited and the Conyers stake has a higher percentage of black people. The Gladys Knight fireside was mainly for black people. The Conyers stake was invited to go at the last minute which is the upsetting part because there was like no time to invite people. Even though members did invite people I don't think we're going to get referrals.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

We're having dinner with these members, apparently it's going to be super delicious. They're going to have us and the two senior couples. Dinner's at two. We're going to have a turkey bowl with the Jonesboro ward. Our ward is too old to play.

No lemon meringue pie? I don't think the South knows how to make lemon meringue pie...oh yeah, doesn't Scott or Charlie not like it? (I always made lemon meringue pie especially for my mom...and Scott doesn't like that kind.)

Gladys Knight was just outside our mission boundry too. It's just outside of Lilburn.

Monday, November 28, 2011

So how was your Thanksgiving? Did you have anything different?

Do the members in GA fix the same things we do in CA, or UT?
Thanksgiving was pretty good. No, nothing was different. The Cranberry sauce had orange flavor in it and that was pretty good. I think the only different thing I've seen was Sweet Potatoe Pie. Sister Watson, the Georgia Archive missionary made lemon meringue pie. It still wasn' vct good like yours, I'm disappointed. We played soccer for the turkey bowl, I don't remember if I told you that. The spanish branch, of course, wanted to play soccer. After the turkey bowl the Jonesboro ward or at least a member and her family had the bounce house type things. They had the slide and an obstacle course and the missionaries got to go on them.

I said that we might not get referrals from Gladys Knight but we did. Our mission got like less then 1,000 referrals and the Atlanta mission got more than 1,000. Guess where most of the referrals went for our mission. The Conyers Stake! and we were invited at the last minute. We got 12 referrals but we're spliting them with the Christiansens the senior couple. What had happened was that the computer was down so the referrals didn't get out till it was fixed and then the computer sent all the referrals out at the same time. So everybody was bombarded with referrals. I also learned that the Conyers zone is the highest baptizing zone in the mission. Maybe that's why I'm probably going to be in this zone for 14 months...just kidding.

Things are good, we have two top investigators. One is getting baptized on the 10th. The other one had a date this weekend but they haven't come to church. We get rides for them but when we call the night before or the morning of they don't answer. We only saw one Gladys Knight referral but that's about it so far.

It hasn't really gotten cold yet. It's raining right now and we were told that it's going to snow tomorrow but it's not going to stick. It's still pretty warm though. The mission christmas party is on the 23rd and they sent out letters or something to the families about it I guess, but I forgot to tell them that I don't live in California anymore, oops. I'm going to send stuff home too, mostly nothing important, I don't want to leave it or throw it away.

That's funny about the pie...I never make mine from scratch like other people. I always use the jello recipe that's on the box! So since you were invited at the last minute you couldn't go?! So you are still under Conyers? It doesn't sound like that one guy wants to get baptized after all unless he's out of town. You need to catch him in the middle of the week. I was wondering why I haven't heard from them! It'll go to Kaleen's before I'll see it. So that will take even longer for me to get it. So which do you like better football or soccer?

Probably soccer, I never touch the football. You never really know where the ball will end up in soccer besides I was the goalie.

The first pie I had didn't stay together so it was mush. The last one there was too little, it was thin.

Gladys Knight was out of the mission. I'm still in the Conyers Stake.

He does and he wants to come to church and get baptized but we can't wake him up, especially on Sunday morning. We see him every week.

Also, since next monday is the 5th I'll say this now. 6 months left!

The Stakes out here are huge! Except for the Roswell and Lilburn Stakes. Haha yeah it's almost impossible to get your bearings out here. There are members who'ved lived here a long time and they still don't know where they're going!

The economy is rough out here. The road we take to get to the church there's three abandoned cars, my last area there was like five. Last week three people came up to us asking for money, a guy walked into our district meeting asking for food all in the same day. It was twice as worse in my last area, a guy even cussed us out for not helping him. People come up to us all the time asking for money or food, it's sad. That has nothing to do with the guy who wants to get baptized. He's cool though, he got kicked out of a library for preaching the gospel.

I don't really know how I feel. I have mixed emotions about how much time I have left.

I don't even know if I'll be able to skype.

-Elder Garcia

Well, I just had to start out with this, the Utes, BYU, 49ers... everyone had a great weekend...Utes beat UCLA 31 to 6, BYU beat Idaho 42 to 7, and the 49ers beat NY Giants 27 to 20. 49ers are now 8 and 1. If they can keep this up we may see them in the super bowl again!
Now that I got that out, how was your week? How is Flint River?

I'm glad the Utes beat UCLA...even though I'm not a fan of either. I just really don't like UCLA. That's awesome about the 49ers! The Jonesboro ward mission leader is from like south LA and he's a huge Raiders fan and he asked me which sports teams I like, he was a little upset when I told him I don't like the Raiders.

We've done mostly service this past week. Flint River is awesome. We're like a 5 minute drive south of the airport. So we're in the airport district and it's pretty ghetto but it's awesome. The ward is tiny (active wise) somewhere around 50. The comps are cool, I have no problems with them. Elder Rima and I are co-seniors I think, that's what an AP said. Elder Rima is the District Leader. I'm the "designated" driver because Elder Rima can't drive but Elder Famas and I take turns so nobody gets hurt.

Oh a week ago the Broncos beat the Raiders good! I can't remember the score, but it was awesome.

Wow. The ward sounds like Ceres! I think we had around 65 before everyone started leaving. I hear 3 new families moved in but I don't know how big they were.

Are you at the library in Jonesboro?

We're in the family history center. Oh yeah also, there's a senior couple (missionaries), well actually two. One senior couple is directly under [the direction of] Salt Lake. They're in the Georgia Archives Preservation.

That's good that the Broncos beat the Raiders.

Everybody's moving out of Ceres eh? That's good that families are moving in at least.

I'm not sure I understand.

They are serving here. The Georgia Archives is in our area and they are perserving them or something. Taking tons of pictures. They are from Idaho somewhere around Boise I think. Elder and Sister Watson. Elder Watson looked familiar to me and I thought he used to be a 70
but I don't know. He probably looks like Elder Hilbig? of the 70.
They are assigned under Salt Lake not President Wolfert, they don't need to report to him.

-Elder Garcia

I am getting transferred and so is Elder Youd. So it's very likely I will die in my next area. I am sad to say that I am not going to Canton. I'm going down to Flint River which is south of Atlanta. I'm in another threesome [with] Elder Rima and Elder Famas. I don't think I'll need anything for the winter. I don't know what the weather's like south of Atlanta, I think it might be a little warmer than when I was further north.

It snowed a lot in Utah this year I hear.

He came to church again. Our fellowshipper member is awesome. He helps kids get into college and what not so it was perfect. The fellowshipper had him go to his house after church and I think that went well. So it's been going good for him. Though I won't be able to teach him again.

Replying from the letter you sent:

That's cool that Father reads our blogs. I knew what White Washing is I just didn't know what Pink washing was. But that's pretty funny, we just call all if it white washing. That's really weird that Daniel has interviews inside his apartment. I don't remember if it's every mission rule or ours but I thought that nobody was supposed to enter a missionaries apartment except for other missionaries. That reminds me about the Utah SLC South mission. There's an elder from the Webb Bridge Ward that is serving his mission there. So if you ever see an Elder Reid...I know him.

I took my picture [for mormon.org] the Monday before last transfer because Elder Asher was going to cut it.

[I hope someone will let you know if/when your investigator gets baptized.]
[What do you mean by "cut it"?]

Yeah, someone will probably tell me if he gets baptized or not.
Elder Asher was going to cut my hair.

[Are you excited about going to Flint River?]

I'm not too sure. I'm pretty excited to be closer to the recent convert I baptized. Elder Rima seems like a cool kid. Elder Famas seems a little awkward/weird type of kid. I don't know, we'll see how everything turns out. At least I'll finally be in a car. Oh yeah, about being in a car in Coal Mountain and I officially know why we had a car and I don't remember if I told you this, when you asked why we were in a car, but it's because I was with Zone Leaders. They are all in a car. Also the new area's we took from Atlanta get cars so that's why I'm in a car.

The Flint River, Jonesboro, Stockbridge ward, and Jackson Branch are new to the Conyers stake. They used to be in the Atlanta Mission but since the Macon mission got dissolved we took part of the Atlanta Mission and the Atlanta Mission took part of the Macon Mission.
I've been down to Jonesboro for Stake conference. The Jonesboro building used to be the stake center for the old Jonesboro stake and is now the only building big enough in the Conyers stake to hold stake conference. I'll also be closer to the recent convert I baptized, he moved down to McDonough, which is pretty neat.

I don't know where he lives [the mission doctor]. Our old mission doctor [was from] Idaho. No, the mission president travels to church buildings and we go there for interviews. We've only done it over the phone once or twice. One was because of the snow.

Is Daniel getting transferred? or is he emailing tomorrow because of his companion?

-Elder Garcia

Monday, October 31st

Our plans keep changing today so I don't know what we're going to do tonight. We have to be in by 6 and we don't have a dinner with a member so we'll probably just stay inside. The ward party was Saturday night.
 
I thought the wig [Donald Trump wig, I sent both Tyler and Daniel one.] was messed up because I tried it on before the party but when I went to put it on in the church bathroom I was twisting it on my head and I figured out that I just put it on wrong back at the apartment.

[How did you do in the Chili cook-off?]

People liked it. It might have been a little too soupy. We didn't even get top 3. I didn't want to be a part of it anyways. I don't like chili anymore. We probably got it everyday during the winter time.

You know how there was a crease from the comb over? [The wig] Well I just had the crease in the middle instead of off to the side.

I don't know if anything really special happened this past week.

If I think of or remember something I'll probably put it in the letter I'm going to write later.

I remember what he [Donald Trump] looked like I just thought the wig was messed up haha. The picture on the front did look strange, like the hair is bigger than what's it's supposed to be. I have pictures before I figured out the right way to put it on.

-Elder Garcia

Monday, October 24th

The weather hasn't been bad. Today is fairly moderate, it's cool but it's warm. But it's been in the 50's for a couple of weeks.

Last Sunday the guy [the new investigator they met in front of Zaxby's] didn't come to church because he had a basketball tournament. Yesterday he didn't come because of our ride we set up for him. He doesn't have a car and so we have a member who lives close by pick him up but Saturday night like around midnight our members little kids got sick so he couldn't pick up our investigator. We've been teaching him and we committed him for baptism and he accepted. We'll talk more about a date next time we go over. 

 
-Elder Garcia