June 24, 2013

Month #2!!

AHHH! Its so crazy to think I'm already in my 2nd month of my mission! Its gone by crazy fast and we've seen an unbelievable amount of miracles.

So, it looks like I have changed locations(Last week Jordan thought their 2 person apartment would turn into a 4 person apartment). Sis. Johnson (Jordan's new companion) and I DO NOT live in the apartment with Sis. Burgoyne and Sis. Tritt (Sis Tritt is the newest missionary just out of the MTC). Sis Burgoyne and I found about the living arrangement changes while we were in Spokane (mission home) picking up Sis. Tritt. I had nothing packed, so we spent all day Tuesday packing up my stuff and moving it. We are currently living with a member. Its so much different than having our own apartment. But I don't mind it. The lady we live with is super nice and she is a convert, so we like to talk to her about advice for teaching investigators. :)  Everything is great!! We are so grateful for her desire to help us. :)

Me and Sis. Johnson are looking for new investigators and people to teach. We've been going through the potentials to see who we felt like was prepared. We went to a house to find someone named "Lucky". We knocked and his brother, Montgomery answered. He's 19 and plays soccer! So we were able to talk about soccer for a little bit. :) (FYI - Jordan LOVES to play soccer. She has played soccer since she was 5) He's way nice. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and how it's the teachings of Christ while he was in the Americas. He LIT UP and said he's been asking the leaders from his church what Christ was teaching in America and nobody had an answer for him. We were SO happy. We gave him a Book Of Mormon and told him to read 3Nephi 11 and to pray about it. He's an awesome kid. He's at a soccer tournament this week, so he told us to call him this coming weekend to set up a time to have a lesson. We've already talked to some future missionaries in the ward to get them to come with us. We already have fellowshippers for Montgomery! Ahh we're so blessed :)

Elder Pieper from the Quourm of the Seventy came to speak to us on Saturday. He basically just answered questions and taught us how to teach people and how to answer their questions. It was way cool. If I could explain it so it made sense, I would. Basically there's always a simple answer and we need to teach the simple doctrine to match the question. :) He was amazing. He mentioned a few things that were in the broadcast too!

That broadcast on Sunday was amazing. It is SO important for members to find people for us to teach. We as missioanries are set apart to TEACH people, not tract all day. If you love the gospel, you WILL want to help others come to find Christ. If you invite people out of pure love and care for them, it will never be offensive. Members play such an important role in missionary work. I didn't realize it until I was out here. We rely on them so much. Help them! They know what they're doing :) I can't believe we will be using social media for contacting now! AH! that's so weird! Its so against the rules that my instincts will tell me its not allowed (ha ha) ... but I trust the apostles and the prophet! If its going to help us get baptisms, then I will do it!!

Terry (Terry is the husband of a recent convert) gets baptized on Saturday! Keep him in your prayers! He's doing amazing and I can't wait to see him get baptized. His faith is incredible and he will be such an amazing influence to his friends.

I love you all so much. Be good and stay close to the people you love. We've been having a lot of hard things going on in our ward, and I know family is important and you can be with them forever.

Love,

Sis. Gardanier :)

                                                    They make the cutest companions!!

She is with Sister Johnson (her new companion) 

and Sister Johnson's trainer, Sister Ladoux

Her favorite rainboots!!

Out tracting

June 17, 2013

Transfers were CRAZY! 

So we got our call last night at 10-ish. Sis Burgoyne and I are currently the missionaries over 2 wards, and we heard through the grapevine our area was being split. We found out last night that we are both staying in Post Falls, Idaho but we aren't companions any more. My companion is going to be the Sister Johnson.(Jordan did exchanges with Sister Johnson in Sandpoint, ID the second week she was on her mission).  Sis. Johnson is amazing and I can't wait to work with her! Sis Burgoyne is getting a new greenie (a greenie is a "rookie" missionary.  A person who has just left the MTC). All 4 of us are going to be living in one apartment. This morning we were moving furniture around to make more room for them. So we'll see what happens! Tomorrow is my first official day with Sis. Johnson! I can't wait to break her in!!  :-)

This week we went through old potentials to find new investigators, and we were blessed! We have about 3 new potentials and we have one baptism invite from a referral we got a while ago. So things are hopping!

Chad (a less active member) brought a friend of his to the lesson we had with him! It was so cool. Chad is amazing. We taught a lesson on ""The Restoration of the Gospel" and Chad was crying and his friend could feel the spirit in the room.  You could totally tell. :)

I was stumbling around in a cupboard in our apartment and guess what I found...I found a crock pot! And I do most of the cooking here :) Please send me any super easy crock pot recipes. We now will be having 4 missionaries in our apartment.

That's really all the excitement this week! Haha but next week will be crazy! I can't wait!

I love you all! :)

sis gardanier

                                                                  The district...

                                                         This is the zone before transfers. 

June 10, 2013

This week we have seen so many miracles..,

But first...TRANSFERS ARE COMING! :)  We get transfer calls Sunday night and depending on what happens, I may or may not have a P-day on Monday. Or it will get moved to Tuesday. Its really up in the air right now. Anything could happen. we've been hearing rumors that they're splitting the area. Sis. Burgoyne (Sis Burgoyne is Jordan's current companion) could get transferred out and I could be training with another 6-weeker or be a trainer to a brand new missionary! Ahhh! That's so scary to think about! But we are hoping we both stay here for one more transfer!

So the first miracle! Sis. Burgoyne and I got a referral for an excommunicated member. They told us he really is trying to come back to church and might need some help, so we went over there! He wasn't home the first time, so we put him in our planners to see him Tuesday right after lunch. We did this a few days ahead of time so that maybe the Lord could find some way to prepare him. Tuesday we showed up and he was home! He told us that an hour before we got there, someone had left a Book of Mormon outside his door and he's been reading it. He was crying and everything! SO we sat down and talked to him a little bit. He is so down to earth and genuine. He is really trying to come back and he's so glad we showed up when we did! We go back Tuesday and Thursday morning and hope to see what he needs from us!

Also that day, we had 7 lessons in one day! That is seriously so many. especially in this area. we have been so so blessed this week.

Wednesday was my favorite day! WE HAVE AN ON-DATE!!!! And I invited him to be baptized! Its Terry, the husband of a RC (recent convert). He is so amazing and he even bore his testimony last fast sunday! He has to work every other weekend, and the date we chose for him just so happened to be the weekend he has off! MIRACLE!  He said he knew he had to quit drinking coffee, so he didn't buy a new coffee maker. Haha he seriously cracks us up. The baptism date is set at June 29. This is my first on-date and I am so crazy excited! I hope that I don't get transferred out of the area because I really want to see him get baptized. But I'll go wherever the Lord needs me :)

I miss you all lots! But I have been so blessed here and I can't wait to see what other things I can do here. I love you all!

love,

sis. gardanier

                   On P-day, all the missionaries meet at the Stake Center in Post Falls
                    to play basketball and eat the traditional snack...which is Oreo's
                    and peanut butter.  Yum or Yuck...you decide!!

June 3, 2013

Hello June!!

Sis. Burgoyne (Jordan's companion) and I are so excited that May is over! We didn't do so hot on our miles (missionaries have a limit on how many miles they can drive their vehicle each month) and we were having to bike and walk a lot. My thighs don't like the hills here. So this month our goal is to be really good about staying under the miles so we don't have to bike at the end of the month. It's hard some days because our area is so huge and all the houses are spread out because we are over a lot of farming communities. But its lots of fun here!

This week we had an amazing experience. A recent convert, Debra, has a nonmember husband named Terry.  He originally didn't want her taking the lessons and wasn't interested at all (all of this was before I got here) but this past week, he came to the lesson! He brought his own Book of Mormon and was following along and answering questions. He read the intro and said he'll keep reading. He came to church yesterday (he comes every other week because of work) and it was so amazing. We teach the Gospel Principles class when we don't have a teacher, so we taught yesterday. We had 15 minutes left at the end and we told them that they could share their testimony if they didn't get to during sacrament meeting. Terry (Debra's husband) got up and bore his testimony! He talked about how he wasn't a member YET and he wants to come closer to Christ. YAY! We were so happy. On Wednesday we have a lesson with him and Debra and we're going to commit him to baptism! I'm so excited! I get to do the inviting. No big deal. :)

This week we also had a dinner appointment with a member family who had nonmember friends over. It didn't go as well as we had hoped it would. Our lesson at the end felt forced. The nonmember friends weren't really that open to changing religions, but she said she'd read and pray about the Book of Mormon, so that's good!

I miss you guys so much! Keep writing letters! I love hearing from all of you. You all are such a blessing in my life and I can't wait to hear how you all are doing. I love you!

love,

sis. gardanier