August 25, 2014

Hoarders and cat hair

HOLLA. This week Sister Maughan and I had quite a few adventures. Hahaha.  It was definitely one for the books! :)

So Sis. Bishop (a member in our ward) had a neighbor that is moving. So we've been helping her all week. She's a single old lady and she has SO MUCH STUFF. Like, a lot. We think she is a hoarder. But not bad enough to be on those shows. She has just stuff everywhere. She had at least 20 coats and she had a walk in closet that was completely full of clothes. Yep. She had to use 3 of those PODS things to put all her stuff in. Remember. She's a single old lady. She also has like 4 cats and 2 dogs. Nothing was cleaned before we went over there, so there was cat hair all over her clothes and everything was dusty. Needless to say, my allergies didn't like that too much and we had to make an emergency trip to the elder's apartment to get some medicine. 

Wednesday was Elder Goins' birthday! He turned 19. I know. He's a baby. So we made him and his companion breakfast and they ate it on our porch. Pretty much we're the coolest sisters ever. 

Thursday we had to take our car in to get an oil change. It was supposed to be a quick 20 minute thing, but we ended up being there for 7 hours! When they were checking the brakes and rotating the tires, they realized we needed new tires. Badly. But they only had 3 in the store. So they drove to Spokane to get the 4th tire. Pretty much it took forever and Sister Maughan and I were so ready to go home. But we talked to the manager there and he said he was interested in talking to missionaries! So it ended up being a miracle that we were stuck there with him for 7 hours. Haha

Friday was Zone Conference. It was 8 hours long. So between sitting at the car shop for 7 hours the day before and sitting at zone conference for 8 hours the next, we were done. Hahaha. Zone conference was great though! We were trained on how to teach a principle in 30 seconds.  Can't remember much else.

Saturday a general authority from the First Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us! Elder Johnson was a great speaker.  Our Ward Mission Leader and Bishop were invited to attend. We were there with the Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint stakes as well. So guess who I got to see? Bro. Moss. My Ward Mission Leader from when I was in Post Falls! It was so fun to see him. He came up to me and I almost started crying because I was so happy to see him! :) (Brother Moss was the first Ward Mission Leader Jordan worked with.  He helped her tremendously as she began her mission and learned how to follow the Spirit.  He wrote us a very sweet email after she was transferred from Post Falls to Liberty Lake.  He is someone she will never, ever forget!) 

Just a quick little side not that I forgot last week. Our Ward Mission Leader is Bro. McLuskie and he's AWESOME. He's from Scotland and has a thick accent. And, the best part is, he's a retired soccer player! He played for Canada, Scotland, and New England. He's supposedly really good. Except he's 75 now, so he doesn't play anymore. He has really funny stories from his soccer days. He played in the World Cup one time and stuff like that. Pretty much he's awesome. :)

This morning I read 3 Nephi 9. It was so good. I love how Christ is ALWAYS asking for us to come unto him. The people rejected him and were wicked, yet he still invites them to repent and be forgiven. 

"...If ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." verse 14

I love you! :)

Sister Gardanier

August 18, 2014

Holla from #HAYDEN! :)

I'm so excited to be here! From the looks of it, I will end my mission here. Sister Maughan and I have had a crazy week. But it's been so much fun! I love it here, but I really miss Moscow. #moscowforlife #PRIDGE

So, this week we got some really great news! We had a call from a random number so we called it back and it was the California Carlsbad mission office. They were calling for Sis Maughan. They asked her if she had room in her suitcase to take an elder's camera with her to Brazil. She's like yeah, but I don't have my visa so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get it there. So the lady's like yeah well we have it on record that you have your visa and you'll be leaving September 23. But you're not supposed to know, so don't tell anyone. Yeah, she's told like everyone. Hahaha. She called our mission office to confirm. It's really happening. She's going to Brazil! :) I'm so happy for her! That just means I for sure get a new companion next transfer!

On Saturday we did a media blitz. Members followed us around to take pictures of us doing missionary work. It's in response to the "Book of Mormon - The Musical" which is in town. In the middle of the day, Sister Maughan had to go to a baptism for her old ward and she LEFT ME ALONE. In this area that I don't even know. So I went with a member and we just tried people and I was all by myself. But I did it! So if you wanna see the pictures, use #mnmspokane on twitter, insta, or facebook. I was tagged in some pictures as well. :) GO LIKE THEM! :)

I can't really tell you what we've done, because I really don't know anyone. But we've been visiting a lot of people! It's been really fun to be here and to meet the ward.

Lately I've been learning a lot about God's timing. His timing is perfect and it's exactly what is needed at that time. Its so great to know that God has our back and that he knows what we're going to need and he has it all timed out perfectly. Timing is the best part of missionary work. People that I've taught or met may eventually get baptized. But I'll never know until later. I really didn't want to leave Moscow, but God needs me here and I'm so glad to be doing what he needs me to.

"By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

I LOVE YOU!

Sister Gardanier

One of her favorite families in Moscow, Idaho.

August 11, 2014

Too many hashtags.  #notenough

The Palouse River sisters and us have been in a #hashtag fad. It's pretty great. We #hashtag everything.

Oh, also. This week is #TRANSFERWEEK. We got transfer calls last night. I'm leaving Moscow and am going to Hayden Lake, Idaho. My new companion will be Sister Maughn. She is a Brazil visa waiter. #languagestudy I'm really excited!  I'm sad to leave Moscow, but I know that this is where I'm needed. I'm excited to start a new adventure. :) Sister Rose will be training. So I'm really excited for her as well. :)

So this week was pretty slow, again. With it still being summer, a lot of families are still traveling and gone at the pool. So we tried to see a lot of people but nobody was home. And, we have dwindled down to a whopping 1 investigator. So sad. Thomas is avoiding us, Jefferson won't reschedule, and Ann and Doug aren't progressing. So, #thesturggle 

On Tuesday we had the BEST Get To It Tuesday EVER! We had a Nerf Gun War! :) We went early and set up the gym. We had so many kids there. It was so much fun. Even the missionaries got to play. And we got to be the referees. Hahaha. We are officially the coolest missionaries ever. #warzone #nerfguns 

This week we taught Annette. I honestly love her so much. She's a drunk, but when she's sober, she's really in tune with the spirit. It's really cool. We met with her yesterday and we asked her what the Book of Mormon was and why we need it. Her answer sounded like it came straight out of a missionary's mouth. She said we need it because Christ suffered for everyone and because of that, we all need to know about it. It was so perfect.

But we have been very busy this week because our Stake President has asked all the missionaries to get into every members home and follow up on their stake conference challenge.  Bishop has really been stressing it and so there were a lot of families that contacted us and we in turn contacted them this week to meet with them.  It's been fun to get to know the ward members better... and it's made our dinner schedule full. One thing that I've loved about this ward is how many returned sister missionaries there are.  We've counted at least 8. and although that is a single digit, that's more than any other area I've been in. The stake presidency challenged every member to make 4 invitations before the next stake conference.  It's been fun to hear their experiences. Nobody's had a bad one.  I love working with the members.  I have a testimony of member missionary work.  Though out my mission, by far the most investigators I've had came from member referrals.  #followup #bestward

This week we also had zone training.  It was so great.  we talked about following up and extending commitments. I love meetings. zone conference, zone training, district meeting, etc.  Whatever it is.  It's always that extra dose of the Spirit that I need.  After zone training we had a little going away party for Elder Dansie our zone leader because he was going home, or in missionary terms "dying."  So we had some monster pizzas (40" pizzas, they're huge) and took some death pictures (Elder Dansie laying on a table pretending to be dead, we all gathered around sad.)  ...and we got to ask Elder Dansie some questions about experiences on his mission and what not, it was very nice.  #zonetraining #ripdansie

Saturday was a really good day.  It went by super fast! Just running from one thing to another and before we knew it the day was over! We helped the stake Relief Society make blankets for some of the people involved in the Wenatchee fires. A couple of the university sisters found a lady named RJ who is golden! Turns out she's a lost less active. but we met with her and taught her about he Book of Mormon using the pictures in the front of the book...(really fun, good FHE activity, you should do it sometime) and had a great lesson with her.  We also talked to a lot of people on the street that day. And at zone training they had just talked about being specific for people you want to find.  i.e. someone in a hat, someone pushing a stroller.  So we decided to find someone in a hat AND glasses.  We had one awesome contact with a Russian guy who's met with the missionaries before. and then as we were walking on this long stretch of sidewalk there was a man ahead and he had a hat on so I turned to my companion and said "if he has glasses, we HAVE to talk to him."  Turns out he did and so we stopped and talked to him.....and he kept walking because he was running late.  Almost made a cool story. but not.  #newinvestigatorssomeday 

Wednesday was National Rootbeer Float day, so A&W was giving away free root beer floats. So we went with the other sisters and got root beer floats.  That's also where the title of this email, and the idea therein, comes from.  Sister Strong speaks in hashtag form. #SisStevensfault and #itscontagious.

This week I read In Helaman 8. The Nephites are wicked and the Lamanites are righteous. Nephi (the one who didn't get burned in the prison) writes:

All the people had to do was look at the brass snake that Moses was holding up on a stick. If they did that, they would be healed and live. But it was too easy and some of them didn't have the faith that it would actually work. Just as they needed to look to the serpent, we must look to Christ and we will live. That was my "motto" for this week.

"Look to Christ and LIVE."

I love you all! I'll email you next week from HAYDEN LAKE :)

#sisterrose

#bestcompanion

All my love!

Sister Gardanier

                             

                                        

August 4, 2014

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST MOM EVER! :) Luckily for her, it's her last birthday while I'm on my mission. :) 

This update isn't going to be anything super exciting because it was a really slow week. Sister Rose was sick and recovering from being sick this week, so we spent a lot of time inside and she slept a lot. So we really didn't do anything exciting because if she was up too long, she got really dizzy. So obviously I got to take advantage of her being ill and I napped a lot. Hahahaha. 

The best part of the week was Friday. 

That morning we had a district meeting. Our DL (district leader) told us to plan a party for afterwards. So we came up with games to play and food. Of course. It was SO MUCH FUN. We played "Pin the Tag on the Missionary" and "dress the missionary." I wish we could have recorded the whole thing. It was so funny. Each companionship had to dress their companion as fast as they could. It ended up being a success. :) The pictures really don't do it justice.

  

After the district meeting, WE WENT CAMPING. :) Okay, only half-camping. We didn't stay the night. The relief society in our ward had a mother-daughter campout! So we got permission to go! So, Sister Rose and I went up early with a member to help make dinner. I've decided that I love camping. One member brought her neighbor and we got to talk to her and meet her. All-in-all it was so much fun. We spent time with the women in the ward and got to know them really well. Sister Rose and I have been focusing on strengthening the ward and our relationship with the members. So It was really nice that we got to go. :)

I honestly can't think of anything else we did this week. :( 

Today I finished Alma!  That's always a great accomplishment when you're reading the Book of Mormon. I feel like once you finish Alma, you're practically done with the book! Hahaha. 

So. Cool thing I read about. In Alma 60. Captain Moroni writes to Pahoran (the king) and he's really mad because Moroni and his army as well as Helaman's army are suffering a lot. Moroni hasn't received any help from the government and he thinks that Pahoran has betrayed the city. So, Moroni threatens to attack the government if he doesn't receive help asap. Pahoran writes back to Moroni (Alma 61) and tells him that what he thinks is not what is actually going on. The Lamanites have taken over the kingdom and are causing a lot of damage. He also tells Moroni how faithful he and his army have been and how much he appreciates them. 

Moroni just wrote this big long angry letter to Pahoran and Pahoran doesn't say anything mean back to him. He says he understands and wants to help, but he is also under attack. I admire Pahoran so much for this. It would be so easy to get upset and send hate mail back to Moroni, but he doesn't. I know I need to be better about being kind to people and to not react so harsh sometimes. There are times when people are under a lot of stress and they get a little bitter. But if we react with kindness and love, we will show Christ-like love and charity for those around us. :)

Transfer calls are on Sunday! Sister Rose and I are hoping to stay together for one more transfer here in Paradise Ridge. I would be more than okay with that. :)

I love you!

Sister Gardanier