Pictures from earlier this week

A Day in the Life of a Missionary

Hello on May 20th

Hello everyone! I hope that you have had a wonderful week. This past week and half have been good. We were able to see Darlene and her girls twice this week and they came to church! That was exciting. We have been trying to get them to come for a month or so. They said they enjoyed it. I hope they come next week as well! 

As we were walking out of an appointment with Darlene we had another Cornelius moment. We were walking to our car and this woman calls down to us from her balcony and asks if we're sisters. We say yes. Then she asked if we were really sisters. So we were like no we aren't related. Then she asked if we were sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We then said yes. She said how she had seen us coming and had talked to Sherry and Miranda about us. She and her boyfriend and child are looking for a new community (church) because they moved and the old one is too far. We told her we would love to see her and talk about our church. We will be seeing her later this week.

We have also been able to see a couple of less actives that we haven't been able to get a hold of for months. That was a miracle.  This past Monday we went to a inner-faith service project. Faiths from around the island came together and we cleaned up a park. It was really fun. We were put in groups and went out to different areas of the park to clean. It was cool! 

After that we had a media split day among our stake. That means we had members with us all day coming with us to appointments and such. They would take pictures and post them on social media so people could see what missionaries do. It was fun. Some of the hashtags were #mormon #mt #mtlmormon #mormonmtl and #mtlmissionaries If you want you can go look these up and see some of the pics from the day. 

We also had Zone Conference yesterday. It was really great. Something we talked a lot about was the Book of Mormon. We had been given at the beginning of this transfer a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in a transfer. It has been a crazy challenge. I would like to extend to you the challenge to read the Book of Mormon. It doesn't have to be in 6 weeks. :) Just start to read it. It was written for our day. Those prophets saw this time and knew what we would need to be successful in this life. I challenge you to read it. Even if it's just 1 verse a day. Any little bit helps. I promise that you will be able to see and feel a difference in your life. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and we will talk to you next week! Sister Gardner 

Happy Mother's Day

Hey everyone! Happy Mothers Day to all of the women out there! You are
amazing and I hope that you had a wonderful day yesterday!

Things here are going good. We are mostly working with our less
actives in the ward right now. We did see Darlene and her girls this
week and they are still doing amazing! We just need them to come to
church.

We had an interesting phone call from a man named Chuck. He called
and told us he had received revelation that the woman that claimed to
be his mother was not his mother. He said some other things that I
can't remember and I advised him to call the bishop. 5-10 mins. later
he calls again on an unknown number and said that he had been watching
a show called Deadly Devotions (or something like that). It said that
the Mormons were a cult. He asked us if we really were a cult and if
we believed in taking medicines because he had heard we didn't. I told
him we weren't a cult and that we could take medicine. His last
question was if we really were missionaries or were we really CIA
agents gathering intelligence on the people in Quebec. It was funny.

That same day we went to take a man named Doug a bible. I've met him
before with Sister H and the first bible we took him had a
printing issue with the back page. This week we brought him a new one.
He is a Jewish man that believes in Jesus. He came to know Jesus
through the Bible and by getting rid of his identity. He no longer has
his birth certificate. He has an act of birth and is now waiting for
his death certificate. He has a paper with a seal from the government
that acts as his signature/i.d. Very interesting conversation.

I hope that you all have a good week!
Sister Gardner

Photos from talking on skype yesterday!

May 4th

Hello everyone! I hope that you have all had a wonderful week! It has been so nice here. The weather has warmed up a ton, which has been so nice!

This week was a great week. We got 2 new investigators. They were a pass off from the French Sisters. We met with them yesterday and are very interested in the Mormon Religion. Hopefully it keeps going well.

We were able to get in contact with a less active that we haven't seen for a while now. It turns out she had changed phone numbers. She was happy to give us her new one and appreciated us stopping by!

Last we were able to get Darlene's daughters, Janice and Terri on a baptismal date of June 6th. Darlene is still thinking about being baptized.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Thanks for all the support and prayers!
Sister Gardner

Pics are of my companions "Greenie Meal"

Hump Day

As you come to the half mark of your mission, I am sending you this camel to remind you how far you have come, and where you are going. There are many similar characteristics of a great missionary and a camel.  

The first is the "hump". Yes, you have crossed the mark and now are over the hump of the your mission. But remember the hump of a camel is used to store food for the long journey. Camels can go for long periods of time without food, but he must store his food in his hump. A Missionary has learned from so many experiences, but a wise Missionary will store the knowledge she has gained, and put it to greater use the second half of her mission.

Another important symbol, is what the camel does to be prepared to carry his load for his Master. A camel sometimes protests his heavy load, but he drops to knees for his Master, and once started, he patiently carries his load. As a missionary sometimes the load seems heavy and difficult to carry. But when you drop to your knees and succumb to the Master's will, He will carefully lead you and you can bear the load patiently, and do your Father in Heaven's work as He would have you do. This is why the camel's knees are heavily padded, as a Missionary, your knees are calloused from the many hours of kneeling in prayer. 

The camel has high set eyes, that enable him to see long distances. A Missionary has her eyes set on higher things, she follows the Spirit that enables her to see the Children of God, those who are seeking answers, and she teaches them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The camel has broad, two-toed feet, that keep it from sinking in desert sand. A missionary has a broad knowledge and a firm testimony of the Gospel. This enables her to teach with boldness and stand firm in her testimony. The people you teach do not yet have the blessing of such a sure-foot, but as you teach with love and the Spirit, you will help them gain their own testimony that will help them walk on firmer ground. One that will lead them back to their Father in Heaven.
So you see, a Missionary has a lot in common with a camel. Put this camel where you can see it often. Dedicate yourself to do as the camel does. Serve your Master well and patiently over the long journey. You have come a long way,  but there is still much ground to cover. Continue to move forward, serving with love, until your mission is complete and your Father in Heaven will say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Sent Sister Gardner this package for her 1/2 way point ..... hump day!

April 27th

Hello everyone! I don't have much time this week. It was a good week. Much busier from last week. Most important and great news is that Ti is cancer free as of this moment! :) He had an MRI and everything scanned clean. They will keep doing MRI's every 3 months to make sure the cancer hasn't come back.

We were able to have a great lesson with Darlene, Terri, and Janice yesterday. Darlene said she would think about being baptized. Terri and Janice still want to be.

I hope that you all have a great week! Those who have finals coming up good luck!

Love you all!
Sister Gardner

April 20

Hey everyone!
I hope that you have been able to have a great week this week. The
weather was so nice here. I was in heaven. I think Spring has finally arrived. :) My other good news is we didn't run into any road blocks this week.

I met my new companion on Tuesday. Her name is Sister C. She is from California (this is my first non Utah companion). She speaks Spanish and English and now some French. She is amazing and is excited for this mission. The poor girl. This week was one of those weeks where people cancelled our lessons right and left. We didn't do a lot of teaching. We did a lot of contacting in the park and kept trying to set up appointments to see some people. Hopefully this week goes by better!

Darlene and her girls are doing great. We were able to talk with this week on Faith. We shared Ether 12:6 which talks about how often our faith isn't strengthened until after a trial. We just have to go forward and hope for the best. After it is all said and done we can see just exactly how it helped us gain more faith.

I hope that you are all having a good week so far! Thanks for all the support!

Sister Gardner