08-24-2015

Hello everyone! I hope that you are having a good week. I hope all with school starting (both teachers and students) that everything goes well for you! This week has been a quite week for us. Both Sister T. and I were physically and emotionally exhausted this past week so we took it slow. It was still a good week. We helped move a member this past week. I'm sore from it. We had 16 of us there total to help move. Much better than the last move I did with Sister C when it was just us. My right arm is rather bruised. So I guess you can know that I worked hard. :) 

May is doing great. We've been trying to call her to have phone lessons with her. It hasn't worked out yet. Yesterday with our quick phone call she told us not to worry that she was doing her homework. She and Frank have been getting up early in the morning so that they could read from the Book of Mormon together! We were pretty excited about that. 

So that really sums up our week. We also having been helping with a Project called Days for Girls (although we just call it Kenya). It involves putting together feminine hygiene kits for girls in Kenya. It has been a lot of fun and I wouldn't mind doing it again someday. 

I hope you all have a great week! We'll talk next week! Sister Gardner

08-17

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

This week has been an ok week. We were able to have several great lessons with the members, less actives and with Marylene. So that was great!

The most pressing thing to happen this week will finish tomorrow. The TAG team will no longer be. Sister A will be going home because her sister is dying from cancer. She has only been given 2 months to live. I would like to ask you to please keep her and her family in your prayers and if you should fast to fast for them as well. 

Elder R will be leaving as well to LaSalle. So as a last "party" for our district we went hiking today to Mount Pinacle. You can see into Vermont from the top. It was a lot of fun!

This has been a great district and I'm happy to have been able to be apart of it. 

I don't have a lot of time to answer any emails this week. So I hope that you all have a wonderful week and we will talk next week. 

Love you all! Sister Gardner

More photos: August 10th

August 10

Hello everyone! I hope that this week is finding you all well.

Can you believe I have been out a year! Where did the time go? It feels like I should still be a "greenie". Time sure does fly, so I'm sure these last 6 months will be done in the blink of an eye. 

This week was good. It started out with a district activity to Parc de la Gorge/Forest Lumina. So I can now say I have walked North America's longest suspended footbridge. It was lots fun. 

Towards the end of the hike we got caught in a hail storm. Elder and Sister P showed up just in time and we were able to get into the car. It was a white out and you couldn't see anything out of the windows. 

We later learned that 2,000 cars had been damaged, the P's windshield has small chips in it now, trees had fallen down, the Parc was closed for 3 days and they were without power for several hours. I knew they had been out of power because when we went to get our ice cream (Coaticook is known for it's ice cream) the power went out. It was still a fun adventure. 

We also had Zone Training. It went well. My biggest take away from it was I need to speak more French and not be afraid of making mistakes. That is how we learn. I won't ever learn if I don't try. 

My last awesome experience was on Saturday. Sister A had been feeling sick all day so we didn't really go out during the day. I was getting ready to introduce my companions to Pistazo. I started to make the batter and then thought I should see if the P's would like to try some too (They live in the apartment below us). So I texted them to see and they said yes but they wouldn't be back until 7. So I had a decision to make. Do I make ours now and make the P's when they get back or should we go and try to contact a women named Cate. 

I felt like we needed to go find Cate and we needed to go now. So I put the batter in the fridge and got my companions and away we went.  So we got to the apartment address and went to what we thought was the front door and we couldn't get in. There was no buzzer to ring. So we walked out unsure what to do. 

Sister A felt like we should go to the back and see if we can get in that way. So we go to the back to find that it is the front. We ring the buzzer for the apartment we have and nothing happens. We wait for a few minutes. From inside a little boy comes out into the hall and is smiling and looking at us. An older man comes with him and tells him to come and open the door for us. He comes over and lets us in. We say thanks and start to go upstairs to where we think the apartment is. Then Sister T. felt like she should ask the man if he knew a Cate. He said he did and that she lived on this floor at 207. The original apartment number we had been given was 209. So we thank him and continue on our way. We were unsure which door to go to. So we decided to pray. We all felt like we should knock on 207. 

Just to be sure we knocked on 209 first. Nothing happened. So we go to 207 and knock. Nothing happens. We hear a noise and we thought it came from 209. So we sent Sister T back. No one had answered at 209 but as she was walking back someone answered 207. We started out in French. The lady just smiled and said, "You can talk in English Sisters." So we found Cate. She has been gone the last 10 months teaching. She said we could come back in a couple of weeks. :)  

Then we came back and had dinner and I now have my companions and the P's converted to Pistazo. :) 

I hope you all have a great week! 

August 3rd

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you have had a wonderful week.

This weekend was eventful for us. We had our Fireside and it turned out great. It was missionary/pioneer themed with camping/pioneer decor. We took out all the chairs in the gym and people had to sit on the floor with blankets they brought or with camping chairs. The only people who had a nice comfy seat were Pres. and Sister Patrick. They were our guest speakers for the activity.

After they spoke we split into 3 groups and had a game of charades going. The families would "go fishing" for a story. Then they would come back, have 30 seconds figure how to act out the story and then act it. All the stories were from the scriptures and tied into missionary work.

Later you could "go fishing" for candy. We also had hot dogs for dinner and members brought deserts. We as missionaries had asked them to make some of our favorite recipes. So it was fun to have a little taste of home. :) 

We also had interviews with President. They are always really good. We talked about how fun and well the fireside had gone. We also talked about how Sherbrooke has been such a blessing for me. In my last interview I was super stressed. He told me that Sherbrooke has been good for me and that I looked refreshed, which it has definitely done. I told him that one thing that had been hard since getting here, besides French, was all of our investigators dropped us but one. She is our one with a baptismal date and her husband has a date to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. He told me not to worry about it. We just need to keep working to the best of our abilities and keep working with the less actives. Heavenly Father will make up the rest. He also gave me some tips to better learn French. 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week. I'm off to do some hiking and eat some ice cream from a town called Coaticook. It is known for its ice cream. 

Love you all! Sister Gardner 

Pics of Beautiful Sunset and Fireside