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!