October 1, 2013

Jacket weather!!  :)

Its been cold, windy, and rainy all week! I LOVE IT. I've pulled out my scarves and jackets and I'm crazy happy! :)

This week was probably the longest/fastest week of my life. Since P-day got moved to Tuesday, our week gets jumbled and crazy. I went on exchanges with Sis. Sheppard. I love her tons! We had lots of fun hanging out in Mica Peak. We stained a bed for Janine and had Correlation (a monthly church meeting) with my WML (Ward Mission Leader). SO fun.

We also spent a lot of time working on the investigator's house with the Liberty Lake elders. We spilled a lot of paint on her deck so we've had to use paint thinner and "goof-off" to get the paint off. It's really tedious. But its okay! We love helping them out. :)

Thursday we had a Training on obedience. We have another training this week and next. So NEXT WEEK my p-day is going to be on Tuesday. Just giving all my blogger fans a "heads up". :) But anyways, the training was so great! And Sis. Mullen decided the whole mission needs to do a "fall cleaning" so we were given a list of deep cleaning we have to do. We're working on that today. But its going to take a few days. We also went to Sis. Tilley's for lunch! She fed us Korean food!  Hahaha. It was actually pretty good! Some of it was...different... but for the most part I loved it! 

Saturday we did weekly planning. We usually do it on Thursdays, but since we had training and painting on Friday, we moved it to Saturday! And then that night we went to the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was so good! President Monson is so great and I love the Relief Society General Presidency. I loved Sister Burton's message and the emphasis on Covenant-keeping. That's what we try to teach people as missionaries! :) Then we went to a member's house to help celebrate her birthday! We ate Angel Food Cake and shared a message. It was so much fun :)

On Sunday, Sis. Imangazi and I said the opening and closing prayers in Sacrament meeting. and we bore our testimonies, taught the Gospel Principles class, and talked to a primary class. By the end of church, I think the ward was done with us. Hahaha. We went to contact we had with a Russian referral for Sis. Imangazi to teach. I didn't understand a word, but the investigator said we could call her and come back another time! Yay! And we ate dinner with the coolest family ever! The Christensen's! They did a surprise birthday "party" for their son, and we got to be part of it! That was way fun! 

I love and miss you all!  Be good missionaries! :)

Love,

Sis. Gardanier

                                 Trying out Korean food from Sis. Tilley

                              October marks the 5th month she has been out!

                                  Goofing off with Sis. Peterson at a training meeting...

September 24, 2013

We typically hear from Jordan on Monday's.  But she was being "interviewed by her mission president, President Mullen on Monday.  We asked her if she "passed" her interview, and her cute comment was "Hahahah...well he didn't hand me a place ticket home, so I assume so!".

We also got a surprise picture from her on Sunday night.  My amazing friend Kim has a friend Corie who has a sister named Jennie (did you follow that?) who trimmed Jordan's hair while she is serving in Liberty Lake!! Small world (and great story!!)...but such a sweet blessing to know that someone is watching out for my missionary.  Thank you Kim for the sweet text and picture...Love you dearly!...Thank you Corie for taking the time to take a picture and send it to Kim...Jennie, I am touched by your act of service to Jordan.  I appreciate you so much!!

Hi friennns. 

I really have nothing super fun to report. Its going to be super lame. My apologies.

I went on exchanges this week with Sis. Peterson. I love her guts. She's so much fun. We only taught one lesson while she was here, but that's okay! 

Janine was baptized on Saturday! It was so great. Her husband baptized her and he bore his testimony. She was confirmed in sacrament meeting and it was so great! She's awesome! :)

Sis Tilley was in church on Sunday for the 3rd week in a row! Yay! We are so happy!

We had a big fat miracle yesterday! Lexi, our RC/LA (recent convert/less active) lives with her Grandma and we gave her a BOM  (Book of Mormon) and she asked if we could watch the Restoration video together! So we're going over there tonight to watch it! She was so happy to get her BOM and asked if she could write in it and keep it! Haha we were like yeah, definitely!

Yesterday we finished painting! We have touch ups to do, but we love painting houses! Our whole zone came out to help. :)

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Sis. Gardanier

September 16, 2013

Hello friends! So this week was slooow. but its okay! It gave me time to show Sis. Imangazi how to work in a proselyting area. She's doing great! All the members love her. And she can hold a conversation in 9 languages.,, and fluently speaks 4. I like to brag about her. :)

So this week, like I said, was really slow. so i really don't have much to report. But we did have a few miracles! :)

So we have a RC (recent convert) who is also LA (less active member). Depressing. But she lives with her grandma and grandpa. We went by to see her but she wasn't home. We ended up staying and talking to her grandma. When we had to leave we asked if we could say a quick prayer. She said yes and asked if she could say the prayer! AHH!  We were like uh  "YES. PLEASE DO ". It was amazing. Her prayer was so sweet and simple. I almost cried.

Sis. Imangazi speaks Russian, and we got a Russian referral! We have 3, actually! (miracle!) We went to visit 2 of them. Only one was home and she said we could teach her! But she's getting a new job and will call us when she gets her new schedule next week. :) Another referral was just a number, and it turned out he lives in Seattle. Too far for us to go. But we (by we I mean Sis Imangazi) gave him a quick lesson over the phone and we said a prayer with him. it was so great. I don't understand anything they say, but it's way cool to listen to their conversation!

I miss all of you and I hope you're doing awesome! Keep the letters and pictures coming! I LOVE THEM!

I love you!

Sis. Gardanier

September 9, 2013

Transfer #4

Hello, everyone! We had transfer calls last night! Yo missionary girl is staying in MICA PEAK! Sis. Harper is going to Lewiston, Idaho and second training. And some Elders are sweeping into Saltese! My new companion is Sis. Imangahzi. She's from Kazakhstan and she's a Temple Square sister! (The sister missionaries called to Salt Lake Temple Square get the opportunity to serve a traditional proselyting mission for a short amount of time during their 18 month mission)  I'm so excited! She has been staying with my stl (sister training leader) so I've met her before. She's way nice and its going to be great!

I have no motivation to type an email this week. Hahaha.  Basically this week was great! We got to talk to Sis. Tilley about her church experience and she just loved it! Her husband liked it too. 

Eddie and Amanda have had more trials come their way this week. Eddie was sharing the gospel with someone and he pulled a knife and slit Eddie's wrist! Unfortunate. And Eddie called us this morning and told us he lost his job :( We are super sad. But we know he will be blessed! 

This morning, Sis. Harper and I had the opportunity to go fear busting (I love this term!!  It says it all with just two small words!) with the new greenies (new missionary arrivals from the MTC)! We got to take them out tracting! I took Sis. Fuller, who is from Texas. We had such a great experience! We got a return appointment for the Elders in Saltese. Yay! 

I love being a missionary! We have been so blessed here and I'm sad to see Sis. Harper go, but I know she'll LOVE Lewiston! :)

I love all of you. Be good missionaries! :)

Love,

sister gardanier

                                Leaves on trees turn colors here....WHAT??

                                         The Spokane Valley zone.

                                        Happy Birthday Elder Smith!!

September 3, 2013

Work, work, work...all day long!

I miss music a lot. I've forgotten lots of lyrics to songs I know! Maybe its a sign. I'm a real missionary!!

So this week was CRAZY! Sunday was a day full of fat miracles! (everyone here makes fun of the way I say "miracles") but, I'll tell you all about my week first :)

Not too much happened this week. On Wednesday we taught our "on-date", Janine. We taught her about Eternal Marriage! Her husband is a member, so she knows all the stuff we teach her already. But she's so much fun and we love her! And we do lots of service for her, so we've all gotten to be really close. :)

On Thursday we taught Sis.Tilley! She's probably my favorite, but we shouldn't have favorites. But I do. We taught her about the atonement and keeping commandments. She ended up opening up to us about EVERYTHING. It was so great. She talked about her son who's not making good decisions. But our lesson went really well. I can't tell you why or how, but we just felt like it was really good. :)

Friday-Saturday we had exchanges and I went to FootHILLS with my STL (sister training leader). They're in a biking area. That's why there's an emphasis on the "hills". I was a good sport about it, obviously. Sis. Peterson (STL) just loves me hahaha. We had lots of fun for the 24 hours we were together. She got stung by a bee twice, put someone "on-date", and rode up lots of hills. Your little girl was saddle sore. 

Saturday I came home and Sis. Harper missed me so much that she decided to treat me to pizza for dinner. It was a good decision. While we were eating, we got a text from Amanda and Eddie and they told us that they found a place to live! Woop woop! They're still in the trailer park, which is a bummer, but they are renting a bigger and nicer trailer from a member. We are so happy for them! Things are really looking up :)

Okay SUNDAY WAS AMAZING. So we're over 2 wards and this week one ward moved to a different building and both wards are at the same time. Problem for us. So we decided to attend Sacrament meeting in Saltese area. 

Miracle #1- The Wildman's (part member family) came to church! And they sat with us! The family that they usually come with was out of town and they came on their own! It was so so cool. And they stayed for all 3 hours. WIN.

Miracle #2- Eddie bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting! It was so great. All about how families are super important and that the Atonement is forever. Exactly what the Wildman's needed to hear. :) IT WAS PERFECT.

Miracle #3- We had a random investigator in the Mica Peak Ward! We didn't invite him or anything. He works at Albertson's and we saw him last week on P-day (the girls do their weekly shopping at Albertson's) and talked to him for a bit (he's a former member). He looked up the time church started and WALKED to church. He's in his early 20's. He's totally going to get baptized. We're going to hand him off to the YSA elders this week.

Miracle #4- SIS. TILLEY WENT TO CHURCH  and SHE BROUGHT HER (non member) HUSBAND!!!! Oh my gosh it was perfect. They went to the YSA branch because that's where their son would go. He loved it and it was just perfect. The testimonies were exactly what they needed to hear and the stake president gave a priesthood blessing to the congregation and it was just perfect. Then the YSA elders took them on a church tour and they said it was so powerful! I'm so excited to ask Sis. Tilley about it on Thursday!

Yesterday for Labor Day we labored! Our zone helped chip paint and repair a lady's house. We were there all day. It was so much fun though! A bunch of people from the ward were there and tons of missionaries! She's totally going to get baptized. :)

The Lord has blessed us so much this week. I love my mission. I want to be a missionary forever. :)

I love all of you! Thanks for all your letters! They make me so happy. :)

Love,

Sis. Gardanier