January 26th:LaSalle

Hey everyone :)

What a week it has been. So I moved to Montreal this Wednesday for transfers. I am in the LaSalle area and it is English speaking. But here is something new, I get to learn Croation. Yep Croation. And I thought French was hard! It will be interesting that's for sure! Wish me luck and if you get a chance you should look it up so you can see what it looks like. There are a lot of Croation people here so President has asked us to start learning it. So it will be exciting.

My crazy story of getting to Montreal. So I wake up and finish packing, which was rather stressful. But then again when is moving not stressful. We are running a little behind, but it's ok. We still have time. So I had Sister G  put the address in her GPS and off we went. Well, the GPS didn't take us to the right place. I have no idea where we were but it was in a very industrial part of town. We were calling the Sister Training Leaders and the Zone Leaders. So they gave us the right address and away we went. Alas we did not make it to the bus station in time. I missed my bus by about 3-5 min. So we traded in my ticket for the next bus. And then I did what doesn't normally happen. I traveled alone to Montreal. Yep, I was by myself and I was really nervous! But Heavenly Father had my back and I made it to Montreal ok and a set of Sister Training Leaders picked me up. What an adventure. :)

My new companion is Sister H. She is from Kaysville, UT. She has done 1 semester in Logan and plans to go back when she gets home. 

I hope you all have a good week!

Sister Gardner

Baptism and Transfers

Well everyone, I am leaving this awesome city of Ottawa. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know I am going to where I am suppose to be, which is Montreal, but it doesn't make saying goodbye any easier. I have grown to absolutely love the people here! They are amazing, and I know they will continue to be awesome and amazing people! Someday I will make it back to this place, whether it be while I'm on my mission or when I'm off. So wish me luck with packing and leaving and everything else that goes along with that.

The Snow Family Baptism was yesterday. It went so well. Thanks to everyone that helped with that! Sister M was able to skype in and watch the whole thing. She was able to say the opening prayer as well. It's awesome what technology can do now. We were all excited to see her. Sister G and I gave the talks. Mine was on the Holy Ghost. I thought it went well. I hope that it wasn't too long. Elder A baptized Rick, Elder B did Karen with the help of Elder A, and Elder B did Xavier. It was so great! They are an amazing family who was ready for the gospel. Next week they get the Holy Ghost. 

What was cool about this baptism was it wasn't just the sisters or the elders. It was our district. We all have been working with the family. That doesn't happen very often. So that was cool and I'm honored that I was able to be apart of it! 

Mom, Becca, and Elise when I get home we have got to work on my hymns! Oh man, I need to learn more, practice with a metronome, and practice to somebody leading me! I also played the piano for the baptism and while the Snow's were changing we sang hymns. Oh my word. I'm sure it would have been comical for you three to watch Sister M and I. When we would get off we would do that typical I made a mistake smile, except the fact that it was Cassy making the mistakes. :) That is something for me to work on when I get home!

I hope you all are continuing to do well! I love hearing form you so keep the emails and letters coming!

Love you all!

Sister Gardner

Pics of baptism and cleaning the font

January 13th

Hey everyone! I hope you are having an awesome week! 

Things here are going great. Yesterday we had a zone training, so that's why our p-day was Tuesday instead of Monday. The training was all about finding and family mission plans. It was really good. We talked about helping families make a mission plan. Which when they first said this, I was a little nervous. When you say people you are going to make a plan like that the members tend to freeze up. We watched a clip from the Hastening the Work website called Let Your Light So Shine. As the family watches the video we ask them to think of names of people that could use a lift. After the movie we go through the names of the people and ask them what the next step is. So if you thought of the cashier at the grocery store the next step would be to learn her name. It's as easy as that. The missionaries are here to help. That doesn't mean they are ready for lessons or anything, although that would be great. We are here to help and encourage them, and help the families not be so scared. We all know people who are ready for the Gospel, whether it be to plant the seed or teach them the whole thing. I challenge each of you to watch the clip and think of people. Think of what your next step would be to help them be ready for the Gospel and then do it! There is no better time than now. This is the time of the Hastening of the Work. 

Karen, Rick, and Xavier's baptism is this Sunday. They are so ready for it. It's has been amazing to see the changes they have made in their lives to let the light of Christ in. I'm honored that I was able to be apart of that. They are an amazing family! If all goes as planned by this time next week they will all be baptized. :)

This week Sister G and I were able to see Ida. It's been a long time since I have been able to see her. She is still the sweetest lady! She really could kill someone with kindness! We read with her from the Book of Mormon Alma 37:36-37 about prayer. She really liked the message. She said she would start reading from the Book of Mormon. Sister G and I felt like we needed to ask her to help us with our French while we were there and in turn we could help her with her English. She is from the Congo and her native language is French. She is taking classes here to learn English. So we asked her if she could teach us French and we could help her with her English homework. She agreed and said we could read more out of the Book of Mormon too. So we will be seeing her again later this week. 

I hope things continue to go well for all of you! Stay warm. We had a day last week that with the wind chill it was about -40 (which is the same in Fahrenheit). Don't worry it hasn't been that cold since. I know, I just have to wait and it will come. 

Love you all!

Sister Gardner 

January 5, 2015

Hey everyone. I hope  you all had a great New Years. I have to admit on the mission it is not a very exciting holiday. We still had to go to bed at 10:30. But my companion and I set our alarm to go off at midnight so we could celebrate the new year. Not that we did much because we were tired. 

This week has been good. We continue to teach and serve the people here in Ottawa. Karen, Rick, and Xaiver and getting ready for their baptism. I am so exciting for them. Yesterday we were there singing hymns and such so they could pick out hymns for their baptism and then they asked the elders to baptize them. So that will be awesome! 

Oh a fun note with Karen, I had started to play the first to measures of a Nocturn by Chopin, the one from Hallmark's Secret Garden. She totally knew it. She said that sounded like the Secret Garden. I just stopped, mostly because that was all I could remember, and said "you know it?" She was like, "ya!" So then I quoted some lines to her and it made me very happy. The second thing is Karen was looking at pictures of temples and she came across one she really liked. It was her favorite one out of the group she was looking at. When she showed it to me later that day, it turned out to be the Vernal, Utah temple. How cool is that?! 

The other cool thing that happened this week was meeting Myra. She was a referral to us by the Chapel Hill Sisters. We were planning for Friday. We had an open space and I thought we needed to see Myra. We had never met her before. So when Friday came we knocked on her door. Her son answered and asked who we were and what we were about. Before we had a chance to answer him, she had come to the door and said, "Are you the Mormon Sisters?" We said yes. While we were saying that I was thinking "Oh no." Generally when people ask that, it's not a good thing. But as soon as we said yes she told us to come in. We had a great chat with her. She is from Haiti and speaks, French, Creole, English, and Spanish fluently. She has met with missionaries before and even had a Book of Mormon. We had a nice chat and shared a scripture on prayer with her that Sister G felt she needed. We went back the next day and she told us that on Friday she had been having a really hard time and was really depressed. She had been praying to God to help her. That night we knocked on her door. It was amazing! Heavenly Father really does care about his children and will put us in their paths if we just listen to the promptings/ideas that come into our heads. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Love you!

Sister Gardner

Happy New Year

Hey everyone!

I hope that Christmas treated you well. Christmas was great here. I was able to skype my family on Christmas Eve and that was so nice! Some much needed therapy! I was able to skype at Karen and Rick's house. I couldn't think of a better place to have skyped. They are so amazing! 

Christmas Day we went and had brunch with the Farr Family. We had pancakes, bacon, and eggs. It was good. For my dad's side there was no cheese bread but no worries. I had bought some earlier that week so I was able to have some. 

After that we went and saw a less active named Shelly. She didn't have any family to see her, so we decided to bring her some Christmas cheer. 

After that we were able to see some investigators Dean and Nelda. That was a miracle. They have had some hard times come upon them in the last week or so and we have tried calling them, texting them, leaving messages and nothing would work. On Christmas they called us and we were able to see them. It was so great! They seem to be doing ok. 

After that we ended the night at the Pricers home for dinner. It was a traditional turkey dinner. So I guess I was meant to have that since home was having that as well. We had crackers on our plates to open before the meal. So we opened them and there is a price, mine was a pencil sharpener, a joke and a paper crown. So we all wore our crowns thought out dinner. Unfortunately I didn't  get any pictures.  

Yesterday I would say were are other Christmas miracles. Dean and Nelda came to church and stayed for all 3 hours. They liked it! So that was awesome. We were able to set a baptismal date for Karen and Rick and Xavier agreed to be baptized as well. Which is huge! He has been struggling with deciding if he wanted to be baptized. They are set for Jan. 18. 

Last we have a new investigator. Her name is Emmy. She is 11 years old and is the daughter of a less active. Yesterday she decided she wanted to join the church so we told her we could help her out with that. 

This week has been fun. Oh and last Monday we went caroling with the district and Dowslake district. We went caroling on Captial Hill. It was fun and we had a lady named Inya join us. She is from Romania. It was cool!

I hope your week has gone well!

Love ya,

Sister Gardner

Pics are of the Caroling and of Sister G and I in our Christmas outfits.

Christmas Eve in Altamont

In Altamont we gathered into the living room long before the anticipated 6:00 Skype call.  Mary even made sure that the family dog and cat were present, too.  "They need to hear Cassy's voice," she said!

Sister Gardner looked so beautiful!  It was wonderful to see her gorgeous face as we talked with her.  We were overcome a time or two, and just loved looking at her!  It was great to see her so happy and to hear her voice.  What an enjoyable time for us all!

Joyeux Noel!

Joyeux Noel!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season. It's a wonderful time of year. I have come to truly appreciate the meaning of Christmas now more than ever. It really is about the gifts the Savior gave to us. I wouldn't have the family time that I have without him. I wouldn't be able to enjoy blessings, material items, etc. without him. He really is the gift of Christmas!

In 2 Ne 19:6 it says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." I can't help but sing the Messiah in my head when I read this. My favorite name of Christ is The Prince of Peace. He brings so much peace if we let him. He knows just how to comfort us when we need it. He knows how we feel. He knows how the world is going. If we let him in, he will bring us peace. He will comfort us. He will be our Savior and Redeemer. The key is we have to let him in. 

I love this season! I hope that we can continue to have this feeling all year long and not just at Christmas! 

Love you all! 

Sister Gardner