December 1st

Hey everyone,

I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was filled with fun! My day didn't really feel like Thanksgiving. We had appointments like normal. But we did have dinner at a members house. The mom is from the states so she had us come over and what a feast! Everything in a Thanksgiving meal and she made chocolate cheesecake with a brownie crust. Yum!!! It was excellent. 

This Christmas season the church has put out a new Christmas message. It's about 3 min. long. Everyone should check it out! It's found at christmas.mormon.org. It can be really powerful. We showed it with an investigator who had been contemplating suicide a week before and he said that he now had a reason to hope. He cried through the whole thing. The church is going big with it. On Dec. 7 they are buying ot the banner for youtube and showing it there and it will be on Time Square. All the visitor centers will be showing it. They have pass along cards for it. We as missionaries have to count the number of investigators we get from it. So ya, it's pretty big!. Check it out!

This weekend was busy! We went to this really sketchy part of town to meet with an investigator and have dinner. Really scary. We didn't have the car. So we had a brother in the ward come and pick us up. Little did we realize that his wife wasn't going to be with him. As sister missionaries we are not suppose to be in a car alone with a brother. But at that moment I was way more concerned about being safe then the rule. I was really happy when Brother Heagle got there! The people were scary. They were all on drugs and yelling and saying they weren't and touching us. Not fun. Luckily nothing happened. :)

We went to a wedding. No it wasn't Karen and Rick's. Their's is next Monday. This was of a  less active named Crystal. The wedding went well. The Bishop said it was the rowdiest wedding he has ever done. We were able to talk to a lot of less actives and non-members. 

On Saturday we went to a Karate tournament. That was fun. There was times when it was intense. They had 3 categories, but don't ask me what they were called. One was on the floor getting out of a attack, one was by yourself floor movement, and one was fighting. 

Then the ward had it's Christmas Party and holy cow they go all out. I will have to send some pics next week. The entire gym was decorated and the missionaries had to judge the pies for the pie eating contest. They also had a cookie decorating contest and a survey type thing to do. It was way fun! 

Sunday was missionary week and we had to talk. They wall went well. I did mine about member missionary work and how it is much easier than we think it is. We are missionaries all the time. We do missionary work by our every day tasks. 

Then the stake did a Christmas Fireside and it was awesome! They sang Far Far Away on Judea's Plains in Spanish and had bells and maracas and another instrument. There was an organ solo and people singing. I loved it! For one of the songs it was upbeat and they had drums. So fun!!

Today we went to the War Museum. It was way cool. I will have to go back because we didn't have time to see everything. Definitely worth your time if you ever get over here. 

Then the sisters in my zone had a little sisters party and Sister Hill made me a cheesecake for my birthday with a 22 on it. It was so cute.

Wish me luck tomorrow. I have to play the organ at a funeral tomorrow and I haven't played one since summer. 

I hope you all are doing well! 

Love,

Sister Gardner

Thanks for the Birthday wishes! You guys were here in spirit. I hope that everything goes well this week! 

I love you all and thanks for all the love and support!

Don't worry I'm not freezing. The snow is all gone here. It really hasn't been that bad. :)