08-31-2015

Hello everyone! 

I hope that this week finds you well and happy. This week was a good week for us. We were able to see more of our less actives. That was great. I love them so much. I wish they would see for themselves the importance of coming to church. As long as I'm doing my best that's what matters. I can't control what they do with their time. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you feel like a failure, but that's when you have to take a deep breathe and evaluate and ask yourself if there is more you can do. If yes, then do it. Start doing those feelings/impressions that you receive. As a friend told me today keep following the promptings of the spirit because he will never lead you wrong. 

We had a great lesson with May and Frank this week. We taught about recognizing the Spirit. The P's in the district meeting before gave an awesome training and it helped a ton!! We based it on the 6 points from Moroni 10:3-5 
(1. Read the Book of Mormon, 
 2. remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, 
 3. Ponder, 
 4. Ask God with a sincere heart and real intent having Faith in Christ, 
 5. The truth will be manifested to you, and 6. By the power of the Holy Ghost you will know the truth of All Things) with a focus on the last 3. 
The spirit was strong and I was able to teach the last half of the lesson, with help of course. But it was a lot more than I have been able to do. I think they felt the spirit too and better understand the language of the spirit. 

Last we have been giving our members a challenge to share a favorite scripture or their testimony with those around them. They can do it by talking to them, texting, using social media, etc. The sky's the limit. I hope we will see some results from it. 

On Saturday we had a ward activity. It was a Corn Roast. It was a lot of fun. Although we didn't actually roast any corn. :) I also played Ultimate Frisbee. It was so much fun! Oh how I have missed it. I can now say I have played it in missionary attire. :) 

I hope you all have a great week! 
Sister Gardner

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!