April 13 Transfers

• Well everyone, it's that lovely time of transfers again and there will be changes.  Sister H is leaving and going to the Montreal East Branch/working in the office.  I will be staying and training.  Yep that's right.  I'm getting a brand new missionary.  I won't know who it is until tomorrow at transfers. 

This week we were able to see Darlene again. We finished teaching about the Restoration. We invited them to be baptized. Terri and Janice said yes. That's exciting! :)

We were also able to see Rob again. Sister H even helped catch a fish while we were there. Rob said he would enjoy us coming back. Next time he would take us out for ice cream. 

My last adventure I would like to write about happened on Saturday. I feel like I lived 3 days in 1 and that it happened last week. So Friday night at 2 am we get a call from the zone leaders saying they need the address of the Kirkland sisters. There is another set of Sisters on the road and they got permission from Pres. Patrick to stay there since they were still a couple of hours from their area. We give them the address and go back to sleep. 4 am we get another call from the Laval Sisters (the one's trying to get to Kirkland) saying they were lost but knew they were in our area. They needed us to come and pick them up. Their car was practically out of gas. So we get up and go and rescue them. We got home and made them some beds and we go to sleep. Morning comes and we take them back to their car and then take them to a gas station. Then we start to take them to the freeway (they were following us in our car). We remember that the exit they need to take is closed due to construction. We call them and tell them we are taking them another way. We get them on the Freeway and we take an exit to get off. They did eventually make it home. 

Meanwhile we are driving through Upper Lachine and we put home into our GPS. So we start to go and come to a road block. No problem the GPS calculates a new address and we go. Well we are stopped at another road block. Both had been due to construction. We put in another route and we come across another road block due to some accident. But eventually we make it home and it's only 9 in the morning and we decide to take a nap.

Later that day we were helping at the Bishop's daughter's wedding reception. It started at 3 and I have no idea how long it went but we left around 7 and it was still going. We helped in the kitchen and took food to and from the tables of food. 

Then we decide to contact a referral that we had received since we had a few hours before we needed to be home. So we're driving along and we come across another road block. The road we were suppose to turn onto doesn't exist. It's a bridge over a river and the middle section was missing. So we put in a new route and go. It is a very long detour but we make it and contact our referral. So the time comes to go home. As we're driving we come across our final road block for the day, it being number 6. So we put in another route and head for home. This route was the longest detour and instead of the normal 20-30 minute drive it took us like and hour and 15 minutes. Needless to say it was a long drive and long day!

I hope you all have a great week and don't run into any road blocks. 

Love you all!

Sister Gardner

Pictures are of Rob and Sister H and the fish she helped catch!

April 6th

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! I hope that those of you that chose to watch General Conference enjoyed it! I thought it was great. 3 new temples were announced. I love temples! I love the peace and the blessing they bring me to my life. I can't wait for the Montreal Temple to be open so that I can go again. Soon.

This week we saw Darlene and her daughters Janice and Terri. We taught them about the Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Darelene had met with missionaries in the past but she said she never read from the Book of Mormon. She said she would give it a try this time. Her daughters went to mutual the next day as well. The leaders said they seemed to enjoy it. We will be seeing them again this week. 

I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Sister Gardner

Happy Easter (March 30)

Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you are all having a fun filled week and are taking the time to think about the reason to celebrate Easter. The church has put out a new short video about this Easter season. It's a similar idea to the #sharethegift video from Christmas. This video is #BecauseHeLives. The website is HeLives.mormon.org But what's great about his video is it will be up all year until Christmas when a new video will come out. I challenge all of you to take a minute and watch the video and then share it on social media. I know it can be scary and you might be worried about what people will say. I was like that. But I have learned that it doesn't matter what people will say or think. If they are your true friends they won't mind. 

This week was a pretty good week. We were able to see Darlene and her daughters this week. We went over the Plan of Salvation again. We invited them to attend an Easter Concert our church put on. They all came, including her son. So that was exciting! We also had a recent convert come who has been struggling came too! The concert went well. There are many musical talents in this area. I was able to sing the the LaSalle ward choir and the full-time missionary choir. Can I just tell you how much I love music. I love the power that music has. It really is the universal language. 

I'm also excited for General Conference this weekend. I didn't appreciate it as much as I do know as a missionary. It's so exciting to know we have a modern day prophet who leads and guides us in this crazy time. I'm grateful for his service and for the other general authorities. 

I would like to close with an Easter quote from President Monson. "I declare my personal witness that death has been conquered, victory over the tomb has been won. May the words made sacred by Him who fulfilled them become actual knowledge to all. Remember them. Cherish them. Honor them. He is risen."

I also know Christ lives. Because of him we too can live and enjoy all the blessing this life has to offer. May we remember Him this Easter season.

Have a great week!

Sister Gardner

Hey: March 23

Hello everyone! I hope that this week finds you well. Things here in Canada are going good. The snow is starting to melt and I don't have to wear my big snow boots anymore, so that's a plus. :) 

This week was a good week. I was able to go on exchanges with the Sister Training leaders. I was in Kirkland again with my MTC companion Sister S. So that was a lot of fun.

The Elders had a baptism on Saturday. Her name is Shantel. She is so sweet! We have been able to help her out a little too. I love going to baptisms. The people just glow and there is such a sweet spirit there. I was able to play the piano for it as well. What a great way to end my weekend!

We have started to see a less active who is helping us with our French. So that should be a big help for me. Wish us luck on helping her with the Gospel and her helping us with our French. 

The last thing I want to tell about happened on Wednesday. We had a little bit of time in between lessons so we went to this light house place. When we got there a newscast was about to take place. At the time we didn't know why. We later learned a man had fallen into the river. Anyway so at the time the reporter went on air the wind started to blow and the snow was blowing like crazy. As soon as he was done, with wind stopped. It's like mother nature knew he was on camera. So one by one the new's vans left and there were 2 left. So the driver of van #1 gets into his van and tries to shut the door. Well the door won't shut. He closes it and then it swings open again. He tries several times to close it with no luck. So he gets out and plays with it. Still nothing. He even sprays stuff on it, no luck. His friend from van #2 comes with a toolbox and he takes a look and does some things. That didn't work either. So eventually the man from van #1 gets in the van and holds his door closed while the man from van #2 comes back with duck tape and he duck tapes the door closed. Then they drive away. It was so funny to watch! There was another man on the pier watching and we were all just laughing hard. The good news is we got to talk to the other man on the pier. We talked to him in the cold for about an hour. It was great and he told us the times he is at the pier so that we can come see him again. :)

I hope that you all have a good week! 

Until next week,

Sister Gardner

March 16 Hey

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a good week!

This week was a great week for us. We were able to see Darlene again and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She loved it. She also wants us to start teaching her daughters so that they will have good moral standards. That will be awesome!

We even had a lesson with Sam this week and he wants to be taught again. He opened up and told us about the events going on in his life and why he had been so busy. We had a member with us and she did amazing in the lesson! We will be seeing him again this week! 

The fun thing we got to do this week was go to a Cabana a Sucre or Sugar Shack in English. It was so much fun! We went with some members in our ward and Pres. Patrick and his family. So it's a place where you can go to eat and you eat everything with Maple Syrup on it. There is so much food! It comes in sessions. You start with soup. Then they bring rolls, ham, potatoes, bacon, pork rinds, eggs, and then they end with dessert of pancakes, sugar pie and this other desert than I can't remember the name but its a bread like substance with syrup on top. You can also get "maple pop sickles". They pour hot maple in the snow and they give a stick and you roll the maple onto the stick and then eat it. It was a lot of fun! 

I hope that you all have a great week!

Love you!

Sister Gardner

March 9 Hello

Hey everyone! I hope that you are all having a fantastic week! It has been a great week here. The weather is starting to warm up. I hope that means spring is on the way! 

This past Saturday and Sunday we had the opportunity to listen to Elder Kacher. He is of the Quorum of the 70's. He came and gave a meeting on Saturday to recent converts, less actives, investigators, and missionaries. It was great. He called people up from all 4 categories of people and had them tell their story about the Gospel and how they found it or why they are studying it. It was fun! On Sunday he came to my ward and he called up one of the youth. His name is Ned. He had given a talk and said he wasn't sure if he was going to go on a mission. Elder Kacher called him back up and had him help with his talk and committed him to pray about serving a mission. It was a great opportunity. Many of our less actives came out which is a miracle. We had one come who Sister H. has never seen come to church before. That was a miracle! 

The other miracle this week was we now have a new investigator. Her name is Darlene. She is from the Caribbean. She is a single mom with 3 kids. The 3rd is autistic. She is so sweet! She loves to pray. When we asked if we could say a prayer she looked at us and told us we never needed to ask if we could pray that we should just do it. It was a great first meeting and we are seeing her again on Tuesday. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep being the amazing and wonderful people that you are!

Sister Gardner

March 2

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all having a good week!

This week has been a good one. The first miracle I would like to share is about Ti. He is Rosa's 5 year old son who has cancer. He gave his first prayer by himself on Monday. It was in Croatian so I didn't understand it, but Rosa said that he said, "Heavenly Father, help me to feel better. Help my Mom. Help my Brother, and help my Grandpa. Amen." It was so cute and sweet!

2nd miracle is we had a referral named Lori. When we stopped by she didn't seem to interested in meeting with us, but she took the Book of Mormon. On Saturday she called us and said that she had felt our love for her at the door and that she was sorry she didn't want to meet with us then and would like to meet with us now. She had started to read the Book of Mormon. We haven't been able to meet with her yet, but this week for sure!

3rd miracle is what we call a Cornelius moment. Yesterday we were on our way to an investigators house and we hear, "les elders?" We turn and reply we are the sisters. This lady talks to us and French and Sister H did great! She is having back and stomach problems and she can't eat. She asked us to pray with her. I prayed in French in the hall with her. Then she invited us in and we talked for a minute and we gave her the French Missionaries number (I'm in an English Ward) and we took down her information. It was a really cool experience. 

The last thing I would like to share is from our Zone Conference. This was the last thing Pres. Patrick shared with us. We read Luke 22:42-43. It is when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and he asking for help and an angel comes to him. Pres. then asked us what would we say if we were that angel. He had us write them down. Some things that came up were encourage, thank him, and give him a hug. Then he quoted the scripture that says when you serve your fellow men you are serving him. This is true discipleship. The things we made on our list are things we can do to really minister to our fellow men. I encourage you all to read this scripture and make a list of your own. 

I hope you all have a good week!

Love you!

Sister Gardner