~January 16, 2012- Called To Be A Trainer!~

Elder Garcia didn't have much time to write, but he has been out 6 months, and has been called to be a trainer! He will still be in the Spanish zone, so he is excited about that!

~January 9, 2012- Hard Work Pays Off!~

Elder Garcia says that this week has been great. They are really working hard and its paying off. They have two sister missionary companions in their district and ward so they do a lot of work. This last Sunday they had 17 investigators at church in all, and that is their average! He says that they are so blessed there. They have a few baptisms lined up for the following weeks. Yesterday after church they found a "golden investigator" who agreed to be baptized after their first lesson with her! She was so ready. She's from Peru, and she said that she has been looking for a church to join but none of them ever felt right. She actually went to church on her own yesterday, and said she loved! So they had a lesson with her at church and showed her a picture of the first vision; after it was all through she said it all makes sense! She has agreed to being baptized in a few weeks!

~January 2, 2012- New Year, New Goals!~

Elder Garcia is very excited for this new year, and has lots of goals! He gave a talk on Sunday about spiritual goals, and he says it was awesome! He learned so much from preparing and studying for the talk. Elder Garcia says that the work there is great, and the people are very interesting, but in the end, its all worth it! He says that there is so much to do everyday, even on his p-day its sometimes hard to find time to write home, and do personal things because they have appointments scheduled; which is good!

~December 26, 2011- Christmas!~

We were able to skype with Elder Garcia yesterday! It was so awesome. He looks great and is doing so well! Elder Garcia and his companion are planning another baptism for the next week. They have been so blessed with the people they have.

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 Esther sent this to Elder Garcia for Christmas as a joke!

~December 19, 2011- Festival of Lights!~

Elder Garcia's new companion is Elder Wright, who us from Oregon. He says his Spanish is very good!! -- Elder Garcia has been able to go to the temple a couple times for a Christmas celebration called the Festival of Lights. It is a gorgeous event that the church does every December. They turn on 500,000 lights all around the temple and they have shows for everyone to see, and its is free, so a lot of people go. Elder Garcia and Elder Wright took  some of the people they were teaching last week.

So, Elder Garcia is able to skype with us for Christmas!! he just got the confirmation that it is OK. We can't wait!

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~ December 12, 2011- Spanish Speaking!!~

Elder Garcia has been transferred to the Spanish mission! He is so excited! He already knows quite a few of the Spanish missionaries from seeing and talking to them in conferences, so when it was announced that he would be going Spanish, lots of people were excited! He will be sad leaving the English missionaries, but they were told that the Spanish and English zones would be combined, and that means they would have meetings together. He loves speaking Spanish to everyone, he says there is a certain spirit with the people and the ward is so much fun. The first day he came on, they had a lesson with a member who is from Mexico and he made them tacos de lengua which means tongue tacos! He had a handle bar mustache, big scratchy voice, and everything. His companions (there are 3 of them since one is leaving home in a few days) are awesome! They are so humble, and speak Spanish very well!

~December 5, 2011, DC pictures~

Here is the mall they went to in DC on their P-DAY! It is HUGE! 

Visitor Center

Here is a sunset view from Elder Garcia's apartment. There are no mountains so it goes on forever! So beautiful.