September 29, 2014

This is what it's all about.

Okay. So this week I literally experienced the BEST MOMENT of my mission. But! more on that later. Gotta leave you hanging so you read my whole email. :)

Monday Sister Maughan and I went and said bye to the people in our ward in Coeur d'Alene. It was really hard to watch her say goodbye to people. Which is really weird. It wasn't that hard for me because I didn't really know anyone. But sad nonetheless. I hadn't even started packing yet, so that night when we got home I was up late packing.

Tuesday was trasnfers! Sister Maughan left to go to the airport and then I got on the transfer van. We went down to Moscow and I got to see Sister Rose, Sister McCabe, Sister Strong, and the Mitchell's! The Mitchell's came to surprise me and I just wanted to cry the whole time because I love them so much. And it was SISTER ROSE'S BIRTHDAY so all the missionaries at the transfer site sang happy birthday to her. Yep. That was my idea. :) I met Sister Gosdis and then we went off to work! I really don't remember the people we met or anything because it was my first day in Spokane Valley.

Wednesday. Yeah I don't remember that day either.

Thursday was weekly planning! It was nice because I had actually met a lot of the people we were planning for, so she didn't have to do it ALL by herself. So I was really glad to be able to contribute to lesson planning and stuff like that.

Friday was seriously the best day ever on my mission. So remember Debra and Terry? Yep. they got sealed. AND I GOT TO GO! I was so happy. Honestly, that is what missionary work is all about. It's about making eternal families. Binding families to be together forever. I was able to be there with Sister Mandy Johnson, my companion at the time of Terry's baptism. It was seriously the most cherished moment on my mission. I was all cry-ing and stuff but it was so great to be able to take part in their story. I'm so blessed to have been a part of all of that. Heavenly Father knew I needed that, so He put me in a position to be able to attend that sealing. I'm SOOOOO thankful that we can be with our families forever. And that when we keep our covenants, we can receive exaltation and be in the celestial kingdom with our families in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. There could not be a more perfect plan.

Saturday was so crazy. We were trying to do Saturday Round Up where we spend all day Saturday working on getting our investigators to church and inviting all we see to come with us! We were in the middle of doing it when our less active, Sonja, called us. We are trying to help her quit smoking and we told her to call us whenever she has a craving and we'll come over and read scriptures with her. So we went over there and she wanted a blessing, so we had to meet the priesthood holders at the church, which ended up being where we were watching the Women's Broadcast! So after her blessing, we watched the Women's Broadcast! Mind you, our day was so busy that we didn't even get our dinner hour. Yeah. We were really busy. Sister Gosdis feels the same way about our meal hours as I do. We get all 60 minutes. No if's, and's, or but's. So we sacrificed it for our investigators. Big deal. 

Sunday! I LOVE the ward I'm in! Everyone loves us and was introducing themselves to me. It was really nice to be in a ward that appreciates us.....Hahaha. It's really weird to be in church and to see President and Sister Mullen in our ward. Hahaha.  We ate dinner with the Byers and they are so solid! They are going down to Arizona on November 6 and they want to do a temple session with me in the Gilbert temple! Hahaha,,, So I'm in! :)

This week I've been so physically exhausted at the end of the night. It's been so rewarding to be able to feel like I deserved my sleep for that night. I think I fall asleep before my head even hits the pillow. I love this area I'm serving in so much and I'm so glad to be with Sister Gosdis! She's so great and she is a solid teacher. I'm going to learn so much from her. :)

This week I'm inviting you to write down 3 questions for General Conference! They all will get answered through the spirit as you watch conference. Pay attention to the spirit and search the scriptures for your answers.

I love you! I hope you have a fun week! :)

Love, 

Sister Gardanier

September 25, 2014

Miscommunication at its finest

Hi guys! :) So last night we had transfer calls! It was my last transfer call of my mission! Sister Maughan is leaving to Brazil and I will be leaving Couer d'Alene also! I am going to be serving in the Belle Terre Ward in Spokane Valley. My companion will be Sister Gosdis. Belle Terre is President Mullen's home ward! Hahaha so you know, I'm currently freaking out a little bit. Sister Maughan was stressing about packing this week and now I'm stressing too! Haha. But I am excited to start my new adventure and be able to serve close to President and Sister Mullen. :)

On Tuesday Sister Maughan and I got to have lunch with Bro Moss! He told me that Debra and Terry are getting sealed on FRIDAY! I literally sat there and bawled. I'm so happy for them! There are 2 other couples that are getting sealed this week as well that I taught. I'm so happy for all of them! :) So I'm hoping to be able to go to their sealing on Friday! President hasn't gotten back to me about it yet.

On Saturday, Sister Maughan had another baptism in Spokane! So we asked a member in our ward to "babysit" me while she was gone. We agreed to meet at the Reynold's (the family that was babysitting me) after she was done at the baptism. So the sisters in Spokane told me she was on her way and would be there in a half hour. 30 minutes go by and she's not there. then 45. then 50. Then I start to freak out. So I call the member that took her and asked if she was still with them, they said no and they they had dropped her off at our apartment 30 minutes ago. So now I'm panicking because she doesn't have a car, companion, or a phone. WHAT THE HECK. So I run inside to get my stuff and I turn around and Sister Maughan pulls up with our nonmember downstairs neighbor! hahahaha I was dying!

So, here is Sister Maughan's side of the story: 

After the Baptism, I had someone text my companion that I was on my way home. (She was with a member doing service) The plan was for her to meet me at the apartment. My ride dropped me off and watched me walk in (Random member from a different stake)  I walked in the apt and I saw that I was alone and turned around and walked back out. Well my ride was gone.  So I decided that I could just ride my bike to where my comp was. So I changed my clothes in to Pday clothes and got my bike. But then I decided that wasn't a good idea. So I walked back in to the apartment and changed back in to my missionary clothes and decided to walk to the church and call my comp. But then I remembered I don't know our cell phone number. So I got the ward list. and started walking down the stairs of my apartment. I decided I really didn't want to walk to the church so I decided to knock on my neighbor's door. I have only met her once (she is a friend of another faith).  She answered and I explained the situation. She started freaking out. Long story short, she drove me where I needed to go and now, Vickie and I are great friends!!!

Hahahahahaha so needless to say, we had quite an adventure that day. Poor Sister Maughan. I ditched her on her last week in the states!

Sister Maughan mowed the McLuskie's lawn and lowered the blade all the way down and mowed a letter "M" into their front lawn. Hahahaha it looks so great! They laughed, so it was all good. :) She definitely didn't want them to forget her. 

That's really all we did this week! Sister Maughan has been packing and we've been running around getting her all the stuff she needs for Brazil.

In sacrament meeting we had amazing talks! They were on the Atonement and the sister who spoke talked about a story in 1 Samuel 25 about a girl named Abigail. She was used as a type for Jesus Christ. She offered herself to take the blame for the things Nabal had done. That's what Christ did for us. He took upon himself the things we will do. Its one of the only times that a female is talked about in the scriptures. Pretty cool! :)

hope you all had a good week! I love you! :)

Sister Gardanier

September 15, 2014

Midnight soccer.

Hi! :) So I feel like I just had P-day, so there really isn't going to be much to say in my email this week.

Shout out to SYDNEY AND KEVIN who are getting married this weekend! I love you guys and I can't wait to hear all about the wedding! :) I love you! :)

This week, Sister Maughan and I have picked up on a little adventure. At night around midnight, we sneak out of our apartment and go play soccer at the Lake City High fields across from our apartment. Its so fun! :)

.......Just kidding. we have started to take our dinner breaks at 8pm since we live outside our area so we don't have to walk back and forth. And since it's been getting dark earlier, it looks like it's midnight. We just play from 8-9pm and then we go home. No worries. We're being good! :) 

Saturday was pretty much the highlight of the week. It was our Stake Day of Service! All the members in the stake met at the Honeysuckle building and had a flag ceremony and got assignments. There were about 10 different projects going on, so everyone was all split up. Sister Maughan and I went to that orphanage house that we started on last week. We finished painting the trim on the house. We got to go up on the roof again! It was way fun. The house looks so good! I didn't get a picture of it, but I'll try to drive by it later this week so you can see it. :)

So Sister Maughan was up on this really tall ladder painting the trim and someone told her she could hang her paint on the wrung of the ladder and it would stay. So she did and then she moved and the paint fell and spilled all over the freshly painted house. Mind you, the house was brown and the trim color was white. White paint on the brown house. Needless to say, there was a lot of touch ups that we got to do. Haha.

After we all got done with the projects, everyone met back at the Honeysuckle building for a BBQ and games. It was a BLAST. There were bouncy houses, snow cones, and a dunk tank. And Sister Maughan and I never leave home without a soccer ball, so we played a pick up game with some of the other missionaries and the kids. It was so great. One the my favorite weekends on my mission thus far. 

This past week I read in the Book of Mormon, from the Book of Mormon! hahaha. I just finished it today. But something really cool I read was in 4 Nephi 1:15-16. The people were being righteous and the reason they were being so righteous was because they LOVED GOD. The people loved God more than they loved anything else, so they listened and were obedient to whatever they needed to do. That's the mindset that we should have! We should love God more than we love anything else and we will get so many blessings and be so happy! :)

I love all you guys! I hope you have a good rest of your week! 

LOVE GOD.

Sister Gardanier

                                                       We love Hayden Lake!!

September 10, 2014

Ghetto paint job.

So. Just a heads up. My family got my flight information. So I'm coming home for reals. No worries. I'll be home the first part of NOVEMBER. Yeah. No big deal. :) SEE YOU SOON. My mom would love to talk to you about it, so ask her and get all the deets :)

 

This week I feel like went really fast. We honestly haven't done anything SUPER cool. We're working on gaining relationships with the ward members and keeping Sister Maughan from getting really trunky. She's really excited to go to Brazil and I'm crazy excited for her! :) She's going to be great! Pretty much she's been killing it in language study and has been able to talk with some of the members in Portuguese. Its pretty cool, if I do say so myself. :)

 

I'll only send you the highlights from the week, since those are obviously the best part.

 

Wednesday we had dinner at the Tran's. So go to facebook right now and look up Ben Tran. He took a video of Sister Maughan and I eating a Thai Pepper. AKA the hottest Asian pepper. Yeah, I took a wimpy bite but sister maughan was a CHAMP. We had so many members in the ward come up to us and tell us they saw the video of us. And I guess a lot of non-members have seen it too and commented to Bro. Tran about it! :) So if you can look it up, DO IT. :)

 

Saturday we did SERVICE with some members of the stake. The Hayden Stake is doing a day of service this coming Saturday, and we needed to do some prep work. So there were 4 companionships of missionaries working and painting and taping the windows of a house. This house is for an orphanage. It was a really cool experience to be able to see how much the community loves each other. We didn't get to see the kids or anything, but I may or may not have helped myself inside the house to see what it looked like on the inside. Those kids are LOVED for sure. It was really cute. After the service, we had interviews with our mission president. I PASSED. Don't worry. :) Then we had Stake Conference! It was so great. The talks were awesome! :)

 

Monday we SAVED SISTER JEFFERY'S LIFE. Okay. Sort of an exaggeration. So we all got up at 6:30am and I guess Sister Jeffery slammed her finger in the closet door. No big deal. So she went to look at the ring on her finger and it was all bent and stuff. She tried to get it off and it was STUCK. So she started freaking out and thought she was going to have to get her finger cut off. So she walked into the front room saying her finger was hurting and went to sit down on a chair. (mind you, i'm still laying on my bedroom floor half asleep and feeling bad for myself because I don't want to be awake right now. I don't know any of this is going on....) She was holding out her hand for the other sisters to see and then proceeds to PASS OUT. This is when I walk in. Sister Cutler, her comp, is FREAKING OUT... like screaming, panicking, about to pass out herself. I'm just like uhhh,  "What is going on". Dr. Maughan over here tries to pry the ring off her finger using anything we have in the apartment. Scissors, pocketknife. fork, lotion, anything. But the ring she is wearing if like, a real sentimental piece of jewelry. Like, her boyfriend gave it to her real. So It's legit and not bending back. Problem. Then she wakes up and is like "ouch" "it hurts" "get it off" and we're freaking out because her finger is turning purple. So Sis Cutler calls a member (remember, its about 6:50am at this point.) So, we see if they have wire cutters or Jaws of Life or SOMETHING. So they take about 20 minutes to get there and Sister Jeffery is like yeah, this really hurts. Like really bad. Then they show up and try to use scissors to get it off and we're like yeah, already tried that. So then they had a bolt cutter and cut it off. She LIVED. Funny story for the week. You're welcome.

On Monday we also painted this lady's house. It was so much fun. We painted it yellow with green window sills. yep. And she didn't want us to tape the room off or anything, so it looks pretty crappy. (and ghetto) But she LOVES it, so we were happy to help out. :)

So this weekend for stake conference, this lady talked about missionary work (I know, shocker) But it was REALLY good. She talked about how she plays "Where's Waldo" with Heavenly Father every time she goes grocery shopping. She prays before to ask for a missionary opportunity and then is on the hunt to find it! It was really awesome. She said it's always really hard at first, but you don't have to be all awkward about it! She loves the adventure and says that Heavenly Father ALWAYS delivers. :) So this week, I'm challenging you to a Where's Waldo game. Pray for a missionary experience anytime you go to the store, sports game, restaurant, ANYTHING. Just ask the missionaries for Mormon.org cards so you can put them in your check or at the check out. Its genius! So next week when I get on my email, I expect to hear all about your missionary experiences! I'll be following up with you! :)

 

I love you! I hope you have an awesome week and don't drown in all the Arizona rain water! :)

 

LOVE YOU

Sister Gardanier

 

Splitting

Elder Carlson at his finest.

 

 

September 2, 2014

Sickies  :-(

Hey! So Sister Maughan and I have had a slower week, but we still always make the most out of it! :)

Monday we went on exchanges! I went to Kellogg with Sister Peeler. Its like the middle of the forest. They swept out Elders last transfer, but they had to get a new apartment since the elders were covering more than one area. So when they got their new apartment, they had fleas, their toilet didn't work, and they live in such a sketchy area. I was honestly scared. BUT we survived. :)

Tuesday we went and helped the Elders split wood! I'm not nearly as good at it as I would like to say I am. But I had good practice! Then we went back to Hayden to exchange back. 

Wednesday we met with our On-date! Her name is Sienna and she's the daughter of a recent convert. She's 9 and she's way cute. Except she doesn't really want to meet with us because she would rather be playing outside. Hahaha I really don't blame her. So we're working on trying to keep her entertained for the 10 minutes we want to teach her. Haha.

Thursday. Weekly planning.

Friday we had district meeting! So they refinished the gym floor in our building and the fumes are intoxicating. So we had district meeting there and we were all a little loopy at the end of it. During the meeting, we had the windows opened to air it out so we could breathe, and a wasp flew in and some of the missionaries were running, screaming and panicking. Then one of them tried to kill it and he missed! So it started to fly after him and he ran screaming. It was really great.

Saturday, Sister Maughan got sick so we stayed home pretty much all day. That night she was throwing up and I decided that I didn't want to be anywhere near her.

On Sunday, the regular church block was cancelled due to the paint fumes. So we went to a different ward building for just an hour. It was fun to just sit there and not have to greet people or anything. We just watched the Elders in that ward do their thing. Kinda like a Sunday off, but not really. We slept most of the day because Sister Maughan felt dizzy while she was awake. So I went ahead and took advantage of that opportunity to sleep. :)

And today I have a cold and feel like I got hit by a truck. But P-day must go on. :)

I miss you all And I hope you had a good week! 

Love,

Sister Gardanier

                            

                            Trying one of the local restaurants called "Meltz".  They make 

                               gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.  Sister G is in heaven!