Letter from 7/16/2012

How are you? Things sound great at home. And i am so grateful that the Elders were in our home. Please thank them for me. I really do appreciate their service. Things were great this week. Zr. VanDyke was married, and i was able to have the opportuinty to give Stefany who we just baptized the Holy Ghost. That was a wonderful experience. I felt the spirit so strongly. It was a great sacarament meeting. I love church more and more every Sunday that I attend. But i would say that the most wonderful thing of my week is a lesson that i am beginning to learn that will not only change my mission but wil change my life. I have known for some time that Jesus is the Christ. That He loves me and He cares about me. I have known for some time that He died on the cross... That He took the sins of the world upon Him and that He can forgive us. One could say i believed in Him but what i have been realizing is that is not enough. And i have been cutting myself short of the true power that He holds. I believed that He could redeem us from our sins... But not mine. I believed that He could help unworthy sons and daughters of God to become worthy, but not me. I failed to believe in the very prmoise that He has given to ALL of us. I did not believe Him. He can save us, mom. He can save me. I am starting to truly trust Him. To truly believe in His power to save and to redeem. Me. I know that He loves me, but on a whole new level. I know that he wants me to be happy. And i know that through Him i can and will go to the Celestial Kingdom.... I love Him mama. And i am so sad that it has taken me so long to realize that but i am learning to trust him. To give my heart to Him and that has changed my life.. I love this gospel. I love My Savior. He can and will save us. And if we will but come unto Him, we will find rest for our souls.(Matt. 11:28-30). Love, Elder Garcia

Letter from 7/09/2012

How are you this beautiful day!!! So we actually havent baptized Stefany yet... Today actually!! So i will be sending pictures next week!!! But I am super excited. She is wonderful!!! This week has been good. I was able to spend a day with Elder Fernandez. And I was able to learn so much from him, he is truly a wonderful example in my life. And i pray and i hope that i can apply some of his qualties in my life. He taught me to have a greater love for the scriptures.. Too often on my mission have i been busy reading the book of Mormon, and not studying it. Too often skimming pages, instead of burying myself in its words. It truly is a book for our time. For our problems, and for our families. In the 9th chapter of Mormon vs 35 he says, "Behold i speak unto you as if you were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and i know your doing." The book is written as if we were present. These men gave their lives to give us the greatest treasure one could recieve. It can be personal, wonderful, and a true treasure in our lives if we will but allow it to be. Search the pages.. Learn to love the book of Mormon again. I know it is true and I know that as I search the pages in the coming year, and for throughout the duration of my life, I will receive happiness. And I will be shown the way back to our Heavenly Father. It is true. Please read it daily. Elder Fernandez taught me to love the people. We often hear about planting the seeds. But he said something very profound on Saturday. If i plant the seed, someone else had to dig the hole. I need to give more of myself. To help God's children to come unto Him. I have been selfish. Caught up in the "I can't", "I am not good enough".... And it was only let me think about ME...... But its not about me. It is about THEM...... And it is true.... I am not good enough. I will never be, good enough.... But i dont have to be. In Christ i am strong. In Christ i can do all things..... And all that He asks is that i come unto Him and learn of Him.... And i want to do that. That is all that i want. Because i know that even when i can not do it, when i am too weak to go on I am strong in Him. And i must repent for the times that i have let ME get in the way. Because the great paradox of Heaven is that only in the process fo Helping others can we help ourselves. There is no me, only them. And along the way i will find me. I will find joy, peace and love. I love this gospel!! It is perfect. I love Him. With all my heart. Love, Elder Garcia

Letter from 7/3/2012

Things are going wonderfully!!! My new comp, Elder Bowman, is great!!! He cannot speak Dutch yet, but is coming!! He has a great desire to serve and that is all that matters. I am so thankful to be staying in Koewarasan. I love it here!! The people are wonderful!! I love them dearly. Having a greenie is tough. Your load is heavier, and more is required of you. You have the large responsibility of training another one of the Lord's servants. But I love it. I love seeing him grow. I love seeing him progress as a missionary. He is going to be great. He just needs to be patient with himslef. Dutch is a tough language.... But I know that he will learn it. In the mean time we will be working.. I am determined to work harder, do more, and live more righteiously.. I need to be a better example of Christ, more reverant, and full of hope... I need to fight longer to give that same hope to others. We had a wonderful experince the other day. I was talking with a man named Ronny. He was so kind. But sadly, he did not know if God existed.... And as we began to talk, we came to the subject of prayer. And how it is the way that we can know for ourselves if He does truly exist... And his eyes lit up... Even though he would not pray in front of us, because he was embarrassed, the hope that came into his eyes was a miracle. And I feel so blessed to be able to be the tool that God uses to bless the lives of His children here in Koewarasan. We will be having a baptism on monday too!!!! I will give more details next week. But the baptism last week was Zr. Lydia. I taught her for about 5 months in Uitkijk. And she finally was able to be baptized. It was a wonderful day! The Lord is wonderful. To answer a few questions. 1. I am a 32 length and 31 waist. And yes, I would enjoy a pair of pants or 2. 2. I am now a weekly chicken farmer... I am pretty good too!! But other than that I am doing my best to be my best.... It has been a great 1st year and I only pray that I can work twice as hard to make the 2nd better.

Letter from 6/18/2012

I cannot belive that another week has come and gone... I don't think time has ever passed faster in my life.... It was a good and a bad week... We are nearing the end of another transfer, and we were scrambling to get people to church so that we will be able to have a baptism this go round.... It is a rule in the mission that investigators must come to church three times in a row in order to be baptized.... We have been working hard to help people understand the importance of coming to church... I have been fasting every Saturday that the Lord will bless my investigators and less actives with the desire and the courage to attend sacrament on Sunday... And no one came..... It made me so sad... and I had a really tough time for the rest of the day..... But I am trying to keep working... We have another transfer coming up... So that was a bummer... But that same sunday the Lord really blessed Elder Grange and I. We were tracting on Peppriepinweg trying to find some new people to teach... And we came across a family, a brother , and sister and her husband. They have lost both of their parents and the sister just recently lost her 17 yr old daughter.. So we began to teach and testify of eternal families....And the idea seemed strange to them, but they had the desire to believe that it could be true... And just as the Book of Mormon says in the 27th verse of the 32nd chapter of Alma.. If you will allow even the desire to believe to work in you it will grow. So we invited the brother to pray.. But seeing that the situation was new he felt uncomfortable... So E. Grange offered a humble prayer, and when he closed I asked the young man if he had any questions and he only said, a warm peaceful came over me.. I have never felt something like that before.. It was a mircale.. We are going to follow up with them this coming Sunday. The gospel is true.. Things have been going good.

Letter from 6/25/2012

I am going to be a DAD!!!! So transfer calls came...... I am training again.. I dont know his name, I dont know where he is from.. all I know is that he was called to speak english and does not know that he is going to be learning dutch... I am nervous... But excited. And I know that our Heavenly Father will bless us along the way!! I will tell you more next week. Because he is a mystery man!!! I cannot believe that Ryan is back already. IT BLOWS my mind...I am scared actually.. My time is just around the corner... This week was good. I did actually wear the new ties with pride... And I am so thankful for them!! I needed them!!! Things have been tough this week. Koewarasan is a grumpy old gal... All of our investigators have fallen through, we had the lowest sacrament attendance is weeks, and there is nothing really going for us right now.... We are fighting and fighting, but things do not seem to progress... The mission is hard. It is disappointing,challenging and exhausting. I have never been more tired. And I am only 1 year out... I have never wanted to quit more in my life. But never have I had a bigger fire for greatness. I have never felt so alone and abandoned. Yet never so embraced and loved by my HEAVENLY Father. I have been struggling everyday to understand the scriptures, to remember the references, and to better my pondering abilties. I have been fighting to become a better teacher, and to recognize the promptings of the spirit. I struggle everyday. But I feel the Love of my Father in Heaven everyday. I grow in faith and in testimony. And everyday my assurity that He lives grows a little brighter. I am so excited for the coming challenge. I know it will try me, test me, and try my faith. But I know I will grow towards being the missionary and young man that my Father in Heaven wants me to be!!