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

Hello on February 23rd

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all having a great week. It has been a good week here in Canada. Still lots of snow but someday it will be gone. :)

This week the 2 miracles were seeing Pam and Sam came to church! Pam is a less active we have been trying to see since I got here. Every time we would go, she would be gone or running out the door. This past week we were able to see her and actually talk to her. We shared Ether 12:4 and talked about hope, faith in Christ, and good works. It went well.

Yes, Sam came to church! He is the investigator we gave cookies to my first week here. We haven't seen him since. He has canceled meetings and has been very busy. During sacrament meeting a brother came and tapped on the Elders shoulders and had them go with him out of the room. We start to sing the rest hymn and when the Elders return they have Sam with them. Sister H and I just about died. It was awesome! He said he liked church and would come back next week. :)

A 3rd miracle not involving me, but the Elders is that there was an Asian man named Bill yesterday who just walked into the church. The Elders talked to him and he has only been in Canada for a week and he saw our church and decided to come check it out because he wants religion in his life. Cool right?!

The other things to happen this week was I got to drive the car. It was weird. Now I know that you are all probably laughing at this, but I haven't driven a car in 6 almost 7 months. It was really weird to be the driver for a day. No worries all went well and Sister H and I are both still alive and doing well.

I have also been asked to be the ward Relief Society pianist. I have been playing every week since I got here to LaSalle. The sister that normally plays is in the Presidency and she is often running around doing other things and can't always play. Wish me luck,

I hope that you all have a fantastic week!

Love you!

Sister Gardner

February 16

Hey everyone! I hope that you were able to have a good Valentines Day! It was good here. My companion and I even had a candle light dinner of waffles. 

This week we didn't get the chance to see many people. We were able to see India and Val. We watched The Testaments with them. They and Indra's other daughter Carrie (a member) cried through the movie. At the end of the movie it says that the Messiah has come and he will come again. Val asked when and if it would be next week. Carrie said she hoped not because she is not ready. Val said she was ready. Carrie told her it was because she was 7. India said she was ready too. Both of her daughters just looked at her and Val told her she wasn't ready because she wasn't baptized yet. I wasn't really sure what to say to that. They both want their Mom to be baptized so bad. Someday I know that she will, it's just a matter of when.

I know that I wouldn't be ready of the 2nd coming happened next week. I know there is often the joke that if your a missionary you will be fine. But I know for myself there is so much more I need to do to prepare for it. 

I hope you all have a good week!

Talk to you later,

Sister Gardner

Pics of our candle light dinner and Ti (the 5 year old with cancer)