Happy Canada/ 4th of July Day

Happy Canada Day and 4th of July! I hope that you are all doing something fun for the holidays!  This week was a great week. We had a baptism on Saturday, Janice and Terri. It was wonderful. On Sunday they were confirmed. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and played the piano. Brother D baptized them. Bishop M did the confirmation.

It's so amazing to be able to help people come closer to Christ. I know that my life has changed because of that. I know that I have seen the lives of the people I teach change. I know that all of our lives can change for the better if we allow Christ and our Heavenly Father in our lives. 

The rest of the week went well. We got in touch with a less active. She is the cutest thing. She is having us over every Wednesday now to help her clean and she will provide lunch. A win win situation if you ask me. :) 

Today we visited Old Montreal today. It was a lot of fun. There is so much to see. And we didn't cover very much of it. Someday I will have to go back and visit. 

I hope you all have a good week! Sister Gardner

06-29 Photos

Baptism last Saturday!

Touring Old Montreal!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! Thanks to those who have been the Dads in my life. There are many of you. Just know that I love and appreciate you. 

This week was a good week. Janice and Terri came to church yesterday. I think they enjoyed it. We will see them tonight to find out. They will also be getting baptized on Saturday. So that's exciting. Keep them in your prayers, because the week leading up to the actual baptism can be the hardest for them. 

The rest of the week went normal. We did service, taught lessons, had cancellations, heart-attacked people,etc. It was good. We were able to hit some of the goals we set for the week, like having members come with us to lessons. So that's great. Hopefully we can keep it up! 

I want to share a thought that we shared with some of our investigators and members this week. It is from this past General Conference. Elder L. Whitney Clayton gave a talk about the Light of Christ. "Every day each of us faces a test. It is the test of our lifetimes: will we choose to believe in Him and allow the light of His gospel to grow within us, or will we refuse to believe and insist on traveling alone in the dark? The Savior provides His gospel as a light to guide those who choose to believe in and follow Him." Mosiah 16:9 says, "He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." It is through Christ that we find happiness and peace in this life. Because of Him there is hope for tomorrow. I know from my own trials that when I allowed Christ in to help me, it was easier to go through. He won't take the challenge away, but he will lighten the load. I heard yesterday that our life wouldn't be tough unless we could grow from the experience. Remember to let Christ in to help you get through the challenge. By the end you will have grown a lot more than if the lesson had just been handed to you on a plate. 

Love you all. Have a great week! Sister Gardner

Photos sent

Scenes from the day Val was baptized!

June 15

Hello everyone! I hope that you all have had a wonderful week. This week has been good.

This weekend was the most eventful. On Saturday we went to go and see our investigator Rob at the pier in Lachine. While we are there this man comes up to us. Sister C asks how his is. He doesn't answer. She asks again and he says something like, "Do you want me to answer that good?" That's what started the whole thing. Please note that all of our conversations did not happen in one setting. He would leave and come back, leave and come back.

In Sister C's words this is what happened, "Later that day, we were teaching Rob at the pier. It was a great lesson. But we met a very interesting person. We'll call him "Sir". I don't even know how to describe what happened. Sir just kept leaving and coming back to talk at us. He kept calling us nuns and wanted to know if we could "Save him". Sister Gardner said "No. Only Jesus can do that." It was pretty funny. He kept staring at us and wanted "our souls to connect". At one point he asked Sister Gardner "What do you see when you look into my eyes?" and she replied "blue... and hazel." It was pretty great. He then wanted to know our names. So we replied "Sister C" or "Sister Gardner". So then he decided to give us names. Sister Gardner is now Suzanne/Shirley. And I am Consuela. At one point Rob had to leave because he had a customer and so "Sir" kept talking to us. In the background was this man and he watched us the entire time until Rob came back. He even got up and moved from where he was originally sitting so he could be closer and get a better view at what was happening. All in all, it was an interesting experience.

We now know that there are good people in the world. We may not get to talk to them often, but they are there. Making sure creepy men at the pier don't get too crazy." There were some other questions he asked but I will just have to tell you when I get home. :) 

Earlier that day we had a literal scripture chase. I had left my scriptures at an investigators house. We realized this and so we went back to go and get them; only to find that his mom had left with to come find us. We searched everywhere for her. We would go back to their apartment and she still wasn't there. On the final time we went she wasn't in the apartment and as we turned to leave she came all sweaty and out of breathe. Apparently she had ran several blocks and streets stopping at the bus stops looking for us. Funny thing was we didn't leave the apartment building. We had just gone upstairs. 

The most important thing to happen this week was Val's baptism. It went well. I played the piano and gave the opening prayer. Val was baptized in a dress her Grandma had made for her older sister when she was baptized. She was so cute. The ward helped out a lot and we had a great turn out! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love you! Sister Gardner

June 8

Hello everyone! I hope that you are having a good week. Things here are going well.

Yesterday we had 2 really great lessons and for both of them we were able to have members come with us. One is a less active who says she will come to church this Sunday! The other were investigators who said they wanted to come to the baptism next Sunday. Next Sunday should be really good. 

Val is getting baptized next Sunday. Val is having her older sister's friend baptize her. She is doing great and is very excited for her baptism. It will be fun we are having a potluck lunch right after church and then the baptism afterward.  If you are wondering why it's not right after - it is because we have to wait for the French ward to get out of church.

Darlene and her girls are doing great.  We were able to set another baptism date for Janice and Terri for June 27. They are progressing well. We just need to get them to come to church. All in time. All in time. 

This past Monday I went to one of the best surprise parties. A man in our ward, Chris,  married a girl from the Philippians last year. She just got her visa to come and she flew into Toronto on Sunday. Her family threw her a surprise/welcome party. The kicker was she didn't know that the family even knew she was coming. She thought she was surprising them. It was practically a ward party/our dinner appointment (which is how we got to go). We all hid in the basement in the music room. She and Chris came down and she thought they were heading toward the TV room. When she opened the door we yelled surprise and she jumped back and ran away. It was fun. She was happy to see us. 

That pretty much sums up this week. I hope that you all have a good week.

Love you all! Sister Gardner


Carol asked her some questions and will post those answers here.

1.     What has been your favorite P-day activity so far?
I don't have a favorite P-day activity. I just wish it would quit raining so we could do more.

2.     Describe one thing you have learned or thought about this week.
Something I learned this week was to love people even with they frustrate you alot!

3.     When was the last time you laughed with your companion and why? What makes you laugh in your area?
We laugh all the time and they are just about stories we tell each other or things that happened in the day.

4.     What do you like about your companion? Do have fun in the work together?
Something I like about my companion is her willingness to serve and to do the best she can.

5.   What’s the scariest thing that has happened to you so far where you have felt protected as a missionary?
Scariest thing to happen was probably back in Ottawa when Sister M and I were downtown at night and waiting to get into a building and there were a lot of crazy people outside the building.

6.     Tell us in person about the last miracle you witnessed…When was the last time you saw an answer to prayer?
Miracle this week was hearing Janice's answer to why it's important to have organization in the church, ie prophets, apostles, etc. Her answer was because we would fall into chaos again and it would be like it was in Joseph Smith's time.

7.    What has your mission president been doing to inspire the mission? What do you love about your mission president?
 Pres. Patrick is awesome. He is constantly giving training's and new ways to look at things for the mission. A lot of what he teaches doesn't just apply to the mission but for the rest of our lives.

Photos

The biodome.

The Montreal Biodome is a facility located in Montreal that allows visitors to walk through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas. The building was originally constructed for the 1976 Olympic Games as a velodrome.

 Bowling in Montreal with a convert.  Look at the size of the balls!