Roasted Pig anyone?!? 12/9/13

This week has been really good. I've been stressing about Transfers, which we are finding out today at 12 so I will let you guys know about that later today probably. I am done with training, so anything is possible, and it's kind of scary. 

On Tuesday we did some walking around and we met a lady named Tricia, she is really cool. She does personal training for Geriatrics. She told us that she was Catholic and her husband was Protestant and that she was looking for a church around here to bring them both together. We went back on Saturday and talked to her and we sat down and she was giving us chocolate and a blanket and some fuzzy socks, we had been there for maybe 5 minutes, ahh I love her. We answered some of her questions and got to know her better. Taught a little about the Restoration. She talked about how she had seen Books of Mormon in the Best Westerns that they stay in, but she couldn't just steal one. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she was SO excited, It was like a little kid on Christmas. She had us write our names and the date so she could remember. It is her B-day tomorrow and she wants to improve her life, She is getting baptized, I know it!

Thursday we had exchanges/splits with the Hermanas. Hermana Jones came with Sis. Davis and I and Hermana Sudweeks went with the other sisters. That Exchange was one of the best things of my life! Hermana Jones is kind of like my missionary idol, probably because she is one of the few older missionaries out here. Sis. Davis and I learned so much from her. Part of training is that I get to take lead in teaching and planning. This was hard for both of us because Sis. Davis likes to take charge, and I like to go with the flow. I think I got this boost of confidence with Hermana Jones, because I was talking to people more and just being BOLD. Friday was probably the best day on my mission so far. I was the happiest that I have been in a long time and it was because I was sharing the gospel, and I wasn't afraid of anything. I don't know where it came from, but I loved it and now that I know what it is like I want to have that all the time! We went over to Mataeo and Hermana Jones was talking with him. I understood very little of what was going on, but he has been reading the Book of Mormon, he asked why Nephi killed Laban, but as Hermana Jones was talking to him, I knew I needed to bear my testimony. I bore my Testimony on The Book of Mormon, and then Hermana Jones translated after. It was the coolest thing, to have him feel the spirit.

On Sunday, Betty taught the Relief Society lesson. She did awesome. It was on Joseph Smith. She has been a member for a month and she did so well. Well we have to get going to DHS but I will email about transfers later today! I love you all, Thank you for your support!

Love,

Sister Kellee Gardner

Yes that is a roasted pig. The Constantinos had us over for their family Christmas party. They are Filipino so there was lots of food! The second picture is from Betty's lesson. She made scriptures with the Hershey Treasures candy and since it was on Joseph Smith she did "we believe" for the Articles of Faith. It was super cute! So for Transfers, I am staying here in Yucca! All of our district are staying actually but we are getting 2 sets of Elders, one for our ward and one for the other ward. It will be exciting and very helpful. Im glad that we don't have to worry about moving or anything and I don't have to stress anymore, the only bad thing about being in Yucca right now is that it is Freezing. When we went to DHS today the other missionaries were freezing, it was 49 or 50 degrees, we thought it felt great. It is about 36 or 37 right now, but the wind is ridiculous. I'm kind of glad I'm not in Utah right now with the way it sounds there. No snow yet, but I'm sure we will get some soon. 

Love ya,

Sister Gardner

Is it really December? 12/2/13

Wow, I can't believe it is December, mostly because it is still about 58-62 degrees most days. December in the desert is different :D

So This week has been alright. We had several lessons fall through, but we were able to visit lots of people. Tuesday we taught Vic, that lesson went pretty well, but we haven't heard from him since. I think he really liked talking to us, but I hope he still has an interest, he cancelled our appointment on Fri. Emily is doing great! She has a sincere desire to do what is right and find out if this is what she needs to do in her life. Her sister is a great example and helps answer questions. The Bueno family also cancelled this week, I guess thats what you get when everyone is off of school for the entire week and Thanksgiving. We were able to talk with Lisa for a bit on Wednesday, and we shared a Mormon Message with her family. She knows the next lesson we are planning on teaching her is the Plan of Salvation, we just have to be able to meet with her.. She's really busy and so it is hard to get an appointment. The other sisters had to go to the dentist today and it is the office she works at so we told them to say hi to her, hopefully shes there. On wednesday we went out walking and we met a few people, one of them is Lalo, he is really cool.  Anyways as we were talking to him he asked us what was the difference between our church and other churches.. In my head I was like "Well let me tell ya ":D we briefly went over the Restoration and how we have a Prophet who leads us today. He seemed to like that. We brought our dvd player with us and we showed him the Mormon message about the Restoration, The spirit was there and I think he really liked what we had to say. He was glad we celebrated holidays because he is pretty into those :D. He is Catholic but likes learning about religion. I am excited to teach him more. 

Thanksgiving was really good. Betty invited us to eat with her, she always invites single elderly people to Thanksgiving and some of them we met at her Baptism. We kept that short and tried not to eat too much because we had dinner at the Prudholms. That was yummy too. Between dinners we went and passed out pass along cards at a restaurant in town that does free thanksgiving dinner every year. That was fun and slightly awkward, mostly fun. Hopefully something will come out of that. 

Friday we had an appointment with a Less active part member family. The Fassbinders, He actually has a son who lives in PG, who might be in a Stake presidency somewhere, I figured mom probably knows him :D. Anyways his daughter( I think) Joyce, is not a member, but I'm not really sure their relation, who takes care of him and her granddaughter. He isn't in good heath and wasn't really interested in us, but we did set up an appointment with Joyce. 

That wasn't really grammatically correct I'm sure, but I hope you get the point. 

Saturday was a baptism. Mom had asked if we had had one on Sat, which would have been the Somers, but we haven't been able to really get in contact with them since we put them on date.. so that didn't happen, but the other sisters had Adam's baptism. They had one back in September, Carmel, and Adam is her husband, so that was cool to see him become interested, stop smoking and everything. Bruce was able to come watch the baptism, and we have been trying to help him understand the importance of being baptized because he really does know it is true, but there have been so many things holding him back, that are little things. Not to mention that he had told the Branch president 2 weeks ago that he wanted to be baptized but he hadn't told us. Which leads toSunday.

We had church, which went well. We were at Linger longer/Break the fast for the ysa branch and all of the sudden, Bruce is like "So I've been thinking about a date for me to get baptized. The 4th is a Saturday and then the 5th has always been a significant number..." Us:" So January 4th? Will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that day?" anyways long story short he finally committed to baptism. He has learned and grown a lot, and there's a lot we still have to teach, but it is nice to know that he is understanding.

So It has been a pretty good week and one more to go for this transfer, Sister Davis and I are hoping we don't get transferred yet.. who knows though. Anything can happen. 

I love you all!

Sister Gardner

So I just remembered something else. A few weeks ago we were teaching Chante(Shawntae) and Jason and then they moved to DHS. well our Zone leaders have been able to meet with them and they have a baptism date for Jan. 11th! Also Karen dropped us this week. Anyways, Love ya all!

Sister Gardner

11/25/13

Dear Family, 

Well I had an email in the works and then the draft got deleted.. Oh well it wasn't that good anyways. This week was pretty good. Monday we had dinner with the Nelsons and they invited Emily and a guy named Jay, who is a former member.. long story. But they have 2 ball pythons and I held one. Only because it was not moving it just sat in a ball the whole time.On Tuesday we had a really good District Meeting and a great reminder that I am not here for me.. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. As I focus on serving others, I will grow as well but if I am focusing on myself, I am not helping others. I was having a hard time with studying for lessons because I was studying what I wanted and not what my investigators needed. That is something that I am continually working on. 

It got really cold and rainy on Thursday and Friday. That was no fun.. On Friday we taught Alicia again. She had a few questions about the Plan of Salvation, but said that she would do anything to get to the Celestial Kingdom. She also said the closing prayer and was pretty nervous but asked if she could give the closing prayer after every lesson! Shes so golden! She just wants to be the best mom and have a happy family. We are meeting with her again tonight and hopefully her husband joins in.On Friday night we picked up a Laurel from the Palm Desert Stake. She got to stay the night and be a missionary for a day. It was a cool experience, I think it would be cool to actually go out with the missionaries for a day and see what it is like. It was cool to get her perspective as a "normal person" of what she thought missionary work was. 

Anyways, sorry this was short, but I better wrap it up.  This pic is in 29, there are a couple of streets that we want to take pictures of, but so far Mormon tr. and Utah tr. are the only ones we have done so far. There's a Memory ln and Boo ln. also Kickapoo tr. is a fun one. Old Woman Springs rd is one of the main roads we drive on, at first I thought that was a weird name for a street but I've gotten used to it and some of the other weird names. The other picture is a sign we found in front of a house, there are several people who have posted signs about how they have a religion already and they don't want missionaries. This is the biggest one ive seen.. Anyways I love you all! and remember that God loves you.

Love, 

Sister Kellee Gardner

11/18/13

Dear Family,

This week has been fun and uplifting. We have 3 new investigators this week, Vic, Alicia, and Emily. Vic is a guy we found as we were walking on Tuesday. We went back and taught him the Restoration on Friday, He read and seems interested in learning more. Alicia is a referral we got from a lady in our ward, well she told us about Alicias husband and so we went to find their house, we had a general idea. We talked to Alicia and she was sick but told us to come back on Sunday. So yesterday we met with her. She is from the Philipines and knows the two sisters in our ward who are Fillipino, and knew they were Mormon, she didn't know we were Mormon at first. We talk about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he wants us to live with Him forever and then we taught the Plan of Salvation. We pull out our pamphlet, and she was like "I have one of those somewhere!" so She has been introduced to the church, but we didn't even know it. She loved what we taught her. It was cool to think that we went over to meet them, and they had already been introduced to the Gospel. I don't know the whole background but I think that she is ready now to hear more. Emily is 17 and her sister just joined the Church in March. Right now she just wants to learn more, but has seemed to really like it. We had a potential investigator named Meto, we set up an appointment and went over there on Sat, her mom said that "she's 15 and doesn't study with Mormons". That was so sad for us. When we asked Meto if we could teach her, she said yes right away.. One day she will be able to learn. On Thursday we were in Joshua Tree and we got to our appointment early so we decided to walk around the area for a few minutes. We saw an old man walking his dog and so we talked to him. anyways he was like I'm not really a religeous person... I asked him if he knew anyone who would benift from the message of Jesus Christ. He started telling us about how his neighbor could then goes on about how he's thought about learning and going to a Mormon Church.A lot of people think we are Jehovah's Witness out here, which is probably what he thought.. We were like "We're Mormnon!" Long story short haha he said he would be at church on Sunday. He didn't end up coming, but it was still a cool experience.

Saturday was the best day ever, besides not being able to meet with Meto. We had our mission conference at the mission office. It was so cool to have all of us there. It was good to see all of the missionaries I knew from the MTC, but the best part was the things that we learned. There were a lot of rumors about some big announcement, but there wasn't one. The purpose was to unite us as a mission. We talked a lot about our goals and what we can accomplish as a mission. Another thing that I loved was just keeping it simple. We have been challenged to teach 5 minute lessons and to keep it simple. The Spirit will be there as we teach simply, when we get complicated, the spirit leaves. It was a great reminder that we are teaching people not lessons. President Madsen, talked to us about how we are God's warriors and how he will fill our mouths Jer. 1:5-8. We may be young but we are powerful.  President Miskin,(cool story, some of the boys in my EFY group like 5 years ago are from Redlands and Yucipa and President Miskin is one of their dads.) talked about being obedient. There were so many cool stories shared. I learned a lot about what I can do better in this area right now. I am really excited for what is happening. There was so much more, but my notes are at home.. :(

I love you all and hope all is going well!

Love,

Sister Kellee Gardner

11/11/13

Dear Family,

So this week has been pretty good. I think last week I talked about Melinda coming to church. On monday we met with her and also on Friday. She is a lot more open than she was a month ago, which is good. I am excited for that. We also had the best Empinadas ever! Sister Hobbs is kinda famous for them, and I wish you could all have some!

Friday was really good too. We met with the Tomeks and Shaunte, she is moving to DHS which is sad but we let the Zone leaders know about that so they can hopefully teach her. Our lesson with Melinda went really well. It was the Plan of Salvation, and she really liked it. When we taught the Restoration, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense to her, but she said that this made sense. We went out walking in Joshua Tree, hoping to stop by and see Gina, who is interested, but her family is not so its hard to meet with her. She wasnt home when we got there, so we walked down the street to her neighbors who were outside, they weren't interested, so we walked around the block and knocked on a door up the street from her, no answer but then she called out to us, they were outside. Cree, who recently moved there but has been investigating for a while, just not ready to quit smoking. Hopefully we can keep teaching her and her family. After we saw her, we walked back to our car, and Gina came home, so we were able to talk to her! Her family wasnt there so we were able to talk for a bit, we would have probably taught a lesson, but we had an appointment to get to:( so that was awesome and perfect timing! We went to our apointment with a less active family. We had dinner with the Trammells and Betty and then we watched the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with them. Such a good movie. 

Saturday was Betty's Baptism. It was beautiful. She asked me to play the piano, we had asked someone to do that already so I just played the closing song, but I made the mistake of telling her I could play :D Anyways she invited a bunch of her friends and had 6 non members there. They all really enjoyed it, and one of them wants to come to one of our teaching appointments with Betty, so theres potential there.  On Saturday after the baptism we met with Lisa, who is a referral we got from someone my 2nd week here. We have set several appointments with her, but things have come up each time and we were wondering if she was even still interested. We almost dropped her, but we decided to drop by and see if we could set up an appointment or something. She's rarely there when we stop by, but she happened to be there and available so we talked to her for a while and she is interested. We set up an appointment for wednesday.

A lot of our appointments fell out this week,but we were able to find quite a few people. One of our less actives that we invited to come back to church last week was at church this week and has committed to be there each week. His son has been going to both family wards each week and is a great kid, and is doing some great missionary work, he had a friend at our appointment last night.

Things are going well here, we have a Mission Conference on Saturday, which should be really exciting. President Van Cott seems really excited for that.  Running out of time, but I might be coming back later today..

I love ya all

Sister Kellee Gardner

Spanish, A lizard and a good week 11-4-13

Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial. Nostros somos Sus hijos. Sister Davis and I decided to learn a couple of spanish phrases this week because we have a potential investigator, I don't know if I mentioned Mateo before, but he speaks very little english, probably as much Spanish as I know. So we go over to his house and our WML talks to him, which is awesome, but I understand about 2 words of 100. We have a Spanish PMG and we have found short little sentences that we can learn and say. It's been kind of fun. This past week went well.On Tuesday we met with a girl named Shauntae, who is friends with a less active family in our ward and they set up the appointment. It sounds like they want to get coming back to church and she is really interested, we met with her again on Friday. Betty is doing Amazing. She told us that some of her "friends" have been trying to discourage her from being baptized and she got up and walked away from them. She also invites a ton of people to come with her to church. They don't come, but she invites them. She ran into one of the ladies we taught awhile back, Melinda, at C&S and invited her to come to church, Melinda told her she had been and wasn't sure if she really wanted to learn more and make all those changes. She has heard a lot of negative things. Anyways Betty told her to decide for herself if it was something she wanted. Melinda came to church this week.. that was cool to hear how that all happened. So Thursday:Halloween, we went to the Trunk or Treat and passed out pass along cards, that was fun. Hopefully something will come of it one day. Quite a few non members came so who knows. Saturday we helped clean a members home. Funny story. We were cleaning out the fridge, Sis. Davis had been washing the drawers and I was drying. I saw this brown dry thing and I thought it was a grape vine or something. it was stuck in the front of the drawer so I start pulling it out and once it was out look up close and saw something that looked like a head. I drop it and look closer, it was a shriveled up dead lizard. Yeah, I touched that and pulled on it. I was only slightly disturbed:D I should have taken a picture, oh well.On Sunday we had a few less actives come, one potential investigator, Jay and our investigators. It was a really good day. Our Heavenly Father is truly mindful of us. I am constantly reminded of that, mostly because I constantly forget, but I know He loves each one of us.

I love all of you and I love getting letters and emails from you all, it strengthens me to hear from you! 

Mucho Love,

Sister Gardner

10-29-13

Transfers calls were today, both Sis. Davis and I are staying. Sis Davidson is going to Palm Desert, but Sis. Gonzalez is staying. I'm glad I get to stay for at least 6 more weeks. So this week has been pretty good. We met with Betty a couple of times at different members homes, she makes friends really easily so that is great. She is still on track for baptism on the 9th! On Tuesday we had a Mission conference. Elder Walker from the 70 came so we went down to Banning and met with about half of the Mission. It was SO GOOD. He talked about how we have all been called already-foreordained, but the goal is to be worthy of the call when it comes. He also talked to us about Alma 8 and how we can apply what Alma and Amulek did to our areas, that was pretty cool. He is an awesome man and I learned a lot. On Wednesday we had dinner  with Sister Hobbs, she invited some non members, we invited Betty and Sister Pace and Sister Cooper who also had a non member friend Jackie. That was interesting, the conversation kind of reminded me of home. On Thursday dinner was at C&S which is the best place to eat pretty much. Its a cute little coffee shop with the best Biscuits and Gravy and Chicken Fried Steak. We basically ate with the same people on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. These are some amazing ladies, their testimonies are so strong, I love them all. On Friday we met with the Somers. Bro. Constantino refered them to us and we were finally able to meet with them. She had ankle surgery and so its been hard to schedule an appointment. We taught them the Restoration and we invited them to be baptized on Nov. 30th, they both accepted. I'm excited for them Sis. Somers is so ready for it. Bro. Somers drinks, so we have a concern there. Our Baptisms though have both come through Members, which is the coolest thing.

On Sunday we had the Primary Program. I don't think I ever realized how powerful that is. The kids in the ward are so stinkin' cute. Also, I don't know if any of you have ever seen the Mormon Message "Daytons Legs" but KSL did a behind the scenes kind of a thing for that one and the missionary opportunities that came from just that one video are amazing. So I reccomend that you look up the behind the scenes thing. I almost cried, which doesn't really happen very often. 

It's starting to get cold here, it is super windy today, and was pretty windy yesterday too.  Anyways, I love you all and hope all is going well.

Love,

Sister Gardner

Betty took us to C&S for breakfast, she made me get the Chicken Fried Steak along with my french toast and eggs... Its some really good food, I'm telling ya. So this was at Sis. Coopers on Friday. L to R: Jackie, Sis. Hobbs, Sis. Davis, Sis. Cooper, Sis. Pace, Me, and Sis. Finster. So Jackie was visiting and her son is a member (since he was 15). Sis. Hobbs told her to call her when she is getting baptized:D. She is an awesome lady and I hope she does decide to be baptized.This cake is actually what we had last week when we met with Betty for the first time, it was heavenly, Dad you would love it.. actually I'm pretty sure everyone would like it. Chocolate cake with Raspberries and whipped cream in between the layers.

Trial of your faith 10/21/13

So this week was kinda rough, we had appointments fall out everyday, about 15 total this week, and we had 3 people drop us. Saturday we were both kinda frustrated that especially that day had been bad. 

So Monday we had an appointment with a lady named Susanah, she ended up dropping us on Saturday. 

Tuesday was really pretty good. We went walking around on what we call "the Mesa" that is where a lot of the members live and the population is a little more condensed. We met a family who we are going to start teaching this week, they are pretty cool. 

Wednesday all of our appointments but dinner fell through. We decided to go by on Martin, the one who has lung cancer. They put him on hospice and we weren't able to see him, it makes me sad that we couldn't do more for him. We had another referral who we stopped by on, she was out of town but her husband sat there and talked to us about how white people are rude to Indians and lots of other things. 

Thursday was good, we went to this dome house across the street from us and they let us take a tour, its pretty cool. He built it himself. He isn't religious at all but he drives her to church every week and reads while she is in there. She was willing to listen to our message until she found out we do the same thing as the Elders.. then we left, but we had to go to dinner anyways. Super nice people though. 

On Friday we went to the Bishops house and did some service we made some cute ghosts. That night we taught Bruce the Plan of Salvation, that went pretty well. We also met with a less active and taught her the Restoration.

 Saturday, like I said was kind of rough, we had several appointments fall out and after all of the fallen out appointments we still had a couple in place. We had dinner with the Trammells and they had invited over their Realtor and we taught her. The Trammels are awesome and the cutest old couple I have ever seen. We were teaching Betty, their friend and the spirit was amazing. Sister Davis and I made it a goal this week to really invite the spirit as we teach, so we were really excited. 

So this is where the real blessings came this week. When Susanah called and dropped us, I was devastated and done. As we taught Betty though I just fell in love with her, she is the coolest lady and so ready. She accepted the invitation for Baptism and is on date for Nov. 9th. The Lord really has been preparing her. She is really excited about this and the Trammels are excellent examples for her. That made this week worth it. We had a rough lesson after that with Nel, she asks a lot of questions that go into deep doctrine. It is hard to know how we can teach her when she really just wants her questions answered. Anyways, I don't have a lot of time left but I love you all. I hope all is well.

Love,

Sister Kellee Gardner

A good week 10/14/13

So this week went pretty well. Last p-day we flew kites with the district, that was pretty fun, also Sister Gonzales has inherited a flute and so I decided to see if I could still play. I played an F scale and she helped me remember some of the notes and then I was sight reading hymns and my fingers just moved.. That was cool! 
On Tuesday we had Interviews with President Van Cott, and those went well. We met a new potential named Mario, his mom is less active and dad is atheist  which we didn't know and so we went to visit them and he answered the door. We talked to him and invited him to the YSA, he was taught by the elders as a teenager and thought that was cool, but we hope we can teach him. We taught Jose again and we have a hard time knowing what to teach. He doesn't like to read, and he doesn't talk much either.. He says he did all his talking briefing Marines for years so now he listens. 
Wednesday was Zone meeting. We met with Shon, she wasn't doing to well so we didn't teach her..There was a cool miracle with that because the member we took was an EMT and was able to help us out, and we almost didn't have her come with us. Also it rained Wednesday, that was cool, my first rain in the desert :D 
Thursday was pretty good, kind of a long day, but nothing too exciting except maybe a package :D Friday we had exchanges. I was with Sis Davidson and we were in the YSA area, which technically is the whole stake, but we just stayed in our area for the most part. We went to invite Mario to church again and got out of the car and the lady across the street started talking to us. She investigated the church about 3 years ago and was excited to see sisters serving. We get that a lot actually, I don't know if I mentioned it but they haven't had sisters here in ages. We talked to her about why she stopped and she said she had some questions and people didn't respond well to the questions she asked, but she was willing to look into the church again, so we are teaching her on Thursday. We met with Alexis who is a Less active and she said before she came back to church she wanted to take the lessons and kind of see where she stood. I love when people are honest with you about their doubts, it makes it so much easier!
Saturday, the other sisters had a Baptism so that was cool, She is a really cool lady. later that night we had no appointments- they all fell through. and so we were driving around and both of us were ready to be done, but we decided to pray and see who it was we should visit, I just felt like there was someone else, but I had no idea who. So we start driving and I thought we were going home, then I thought we were stopping by a members house( I could have asked where it was we were going, but honestly I was way too tired by that point) and then I realized where we were.. It was a lady who we have been trying to contact forever, the elders taught her then she got busy with work and stopped, so sis. Davis hadn't met her but I guess they had stopped by like 7 times before, we went by last week and no one was there. It didn't look much better this time, but it ended up that she was there! so we set up an appointment with her! Miracle!

So the YSA doesn't currently have anyone who plays piano, except me..So I volunteered to play yesterday. I ended up just playing top hand, but i guess compared to A Capella or the CD's it was better.. I guess in 2 weeks there's a boy who is turning 18 who can play so when he moves in they will have him play. Also we had dinner with the Constantino family. It was delicious :D Allen, who is our ward mission leader in the ysa went to Utah for conference and was able to meet Mom and Dad. so I guess he asked what kind of food we would eat. Mom gave him the recipe for crock-pot Italian chicken over rice. It was a nice surprise to have something from home. they also had some cool Filipino stew. Brother Constantino also gave us some fans that they got from San Fran, they are the coolest family ever!

Anyways I hope all is well with you. Thank you for your love and support! I love you all!

Mucho Love,

Sister Kellee Gardner

P.S random facts

we have a Recent convert in the ysa who is from Africa, his name is Shadrack, and he has 2 brothers named Meshack and Abed-nego. 

Sister Davis calls doTerra oils Hippie Medicine, there are a couple of people in the wards out here that use doTerra, so that's cool. If I happen to mention Hippie medicine, know that's what I'm talking about:

10/7/13

So this week we met with quite a few less- actives, invited several to come to conference, most said they would just watch at home. We have so many less-actives right now, and the main reason they don't come any more is they don't feel loved by the ward. It is hard to understand that because we as missionaries feel the love and support of the ward, but they aren't necessarily supporting the people who aren't coming. I liked Arnulfo Vanezuelas talk from sat afternoon. It is the small and simple things that help others to come unto Christ. It really is as simple as just loving them. This area hasn't really ever had Sisters before, so we have a great opportunity to go into the single sisters homes where Elders couldn't. There's a lot of work for us to do, and a lot of that just means loving the people who haven't felt that in a while. 

If I had to pick a top favorite talk from Conference, it would probably be President Uchtdorfs talk. I think mostly because it addressed so many concerns that we have come across with our less actives and people in general. I Loved Elder Ballards talk as well. Member missionary work is the best thing ever. I definitely didn't realize how effective and how important it really is. There is a cool fireside thing that is called "The Missionary Next Door" it talks about member missionary work and I love it. 

Conference had something for everyone and I loved the focus on covenants and being converted. I really don't even know what to say about conference besides it was amazing. There's this cool thing that happens when I have good experiences like conference, that no matter what has happened earlier in the week, It automatically becomes a good week and I don't care about what happened except for that good thing. I invite you all to find an opportunity to invite someone to church or an activity. I would love to hear your experiences of missionary work.

I know this is short and scatterbrained, but I love you all. 

I know that God lives and that He loves us. I know he wants us to follow Him. I know that the work is His and he leads it and we can all share the gospel. The Church is true and it has the Priesthood authority of God. It was restored through Joseph Smith with that power.

I love and miss you all!

Sister Gardner

Lots of work to do! 9/30/13

This week has been really good. On Tuesday we went to a referral, his wife answered the door and said they weren't really interested, we asked if we could talk to her husband, he said we could come in. He is probably the coolest guy. Look up Martin Frost online, he has been inducted into the bowling hall of fame. He has stage 4 Lung cancer and for someone who isn't doing so well, he is content with his life and at peace. At first he wasn't interested in the gospel, he thought it was cool that we were doing what we were though. We talked to him for quite awhile and then we gave him a Book of Mormon and introduced that to him. 

I'm starting to learn that when people say no at first, try again at least once more and the Lord will bless you. I say starting because each time this happens I am ready to walk away and say we tried, but every time we are able to share a message as we try just a little bit harder. I hope to get to the point where I don't ever say oh well we tried, if I didn't do all I could. That night we had a lesson with an investigator and a couple from the ward was able to come with us, I really have enjoyed having members present, they are able to relate to experiences that we as missionaries often can't. On Wednesday all of our appointments fell out so we went out with the Branch Mission Leader from the YSA branch to meet with less-actives in the branch. There is such potential for the branch, and we hope to continue to help them feel welcome at church. We also met with Bruce. I don't know if I mentioned him, but he is a friend of one of our investigators and he is so ready for the Gospel. He just talks and talks and talks and has invited us to his Garden Club meetings at the College.

On Thursday, we did weekly planning in the park by the library. We saw a guy doing yoga and just chilling so we went up and talked to him and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and talking about the Restoration a little. We invited him to church and he came! He even brought a friend. They only stayed for Sacrament, but they wanted us to teach them more. We also brought a less-active to the Family History Center. She has no family history done, and the members were eager to help her get started. We just have to deal with some retarded computers and internet connection. On Friday we had an appointment with a referral, her name is Shon, and she has an uncle and a cousin who are members and she says she thinks she is ready to learn more. Shes an awesome lady. She wanted to come to the Relief Society Broadcast, but she can't drive and so we were able to find her a ride with a member. Later we found out that member called her just to check up on her and see if she would want a ride to church. We didn't even ask! There are quite a few members here like that, and I love that our stake is very mission minded. Saturday we had a breakfast with the missionaries in our zone and the stake president. He talked to us about how the work was going and what he could do to help. It was a really good meeting. We met with George again and taught him the first part of the Restoration. He's a talker too, Sister Davis and I are learning patience with him and Bruce. That and it's probably ok to cut them off to try and stay on track. Brother and Sister Clinger and their son came with us and they were amazing.

We have set up a calendar where members can sign up to have us teach them a lesson in their home, giving them an opportunity to invite a non member or less-active. They have been really receptive and we are excited to start teaching these lessons. 

There is a lot of work to do, and sometimes we struggle balancing the 2 wards, but both bishops are mission minded and willing to help us out however they can, which is awesome. I am excited for conference and the investigators who are coming. There is way more to talk about but I'm running out of time so that will have to do! Love you all!

First week in California 9/23/13

Dear Family, 

So I have arrived in California, and I love it here! My First Area is... Yucca Valley. It's the Desert, but its been cooling off here, so not too bad temperature wise. My companion is Sister Davis. So I guess I will start with Tuesday.

Tuesday we went to the church right next to the Temple, The temple is gorgeous by the way. We had an orientation meeting. Mission rules, and information, etc. We were all exhausted and trying to stay awake. We woke up at 2:40 that day so by the time the night ended, I think we actually went to bed at 9(which would be 10 Utah time) we had been awake for about 19 hours..  after we took care of things there we went to the mission home, we helped with dinner and were able to relax a bit. One of the VanCotts neigbors, Sister Larson came over for dinner. She is the sweetest lady ever! We had a mini FHE and President talked about how we aren't tracting, but focusing on working with the members. I was excited to hear that. The sisters all stayed at Sister Larsons house. It is the coolest old house ever, and it is huge. It brought back memories, because it reminded me of grandma and grandpa's place in Layton with all of the family pictures everywhere. Also when we got off the plane the first thing we saw outside the airport besides palm trees.. Mountains! There's only a few but these ones reminded me of  Timp and G mountain. It feels like home! except they are North and not East. 

Wednesday we had breakfast and then headed over to the Mission office. We had more meetings and training which was so good, then we ate lunch and found out who our companions are! Sister Davis is from Hennifer Ut, and shes super nice. We drove back to Yucca, which is about an hour away from Redlands. maybe an hour and a half. We also cover Joshua Tree, speaking of which, there's alot of those(tree's). Basically I unpacked and then we went to dinner with the Boyers. We went to a YW activity because we had an investigator there, we did water color with a Sister in the ward who is an artist, pretty cool. Both Sis. Davis and I started getting sick with a cold.. 

Thursday we had a referral from the Bishop, his name is George, he lives in Landers, which is out in the boonies, relative to Yucca, because I consider Yucca the boonies. Most everyone here has dirt yards, no lawns to mow, they rake them.. Especially in Landers, Dirt roads and the only way you know theres a house and a yard is because they have fences/gates around their yard. George actually knows quite a bit about the Church, he worked in Social services and with welfare and so they worked with church members that way and he has been to Temple square and read the Book of Mormon. It's been several years since then, but he loves learning, especially PBS, reminded me of Dad that way:D Because we were sick we had to cancel our appointment with a recent convert, She didn't want us to get her sick, don't blame her, But we have dinner every night with a member, so I'm definitely not starving, I better start working out more!. 

Friday we felt pretty miserable and so we did alot of study and planning and training. We did go on a walk to the church, its about a 15 minute walk and right across from the high school so we stopped and talked to a few kids as they were walking home, most of them go to a church called Joshua Springs, they are kind of anti-Mormon there, they don't believe Mormons are Christians, but we will change that! We had dinner with the Quinlans, we had fish and it wasn't too bad, it was smoked and lemon peper seasoning so not much fish taste:D The Quinlans are really cool, Most of the members here are converts, so it's really cool to hear their stories.

Saturday I had a hard time focusing during study and training, but I learned a lot from what we did, so I'm glad that even though I didn't want to really do it I did it anyways. We stopped by on a Potential, Ken, I haven't taught him yet but he's single and raising his son and the Sisters were going around meeting the members, I guess a member used to live there but moved about a year ago. anyways he said his son could use some religion and decided he could probably too. So we stopped by to set up an appointment and we invited him to come to church, and He said he yes! More about that later. We went through the Area book and found a bunch of former investigators that we didnt know why they had stopped taking lessons and decided to contact them. We went to one and the numbers weren't on the apt. so we went next door to where he lived and found out they moved about 5 months ago but we talked to the girl who lived  there, she's Muslim and from Fiji. We talked to her for a while and she has a lot of Christian friends and was interested in learning more about what we believe. We gave her a pass along card and some other info, she invited us to come over for dinner some time too, she seems like she wanted some more friends, she stays home and goes to school and her husband is in nursing school so she seems kinda lonely. Anyways we called another potential(Nel) that the Elders had met with a few times but we haven't met in person, she couldn't meet with us but we invited her to church also. Sister Davis invited almost everyone we talked to on Saturday to Church, which was good. 

So Sunday, we are over a ward and a YSA branch and that keeps us pretty busy. We had meetings and then we went to go pick up Ken, we had told him it was at 11:30 and we would be by around 11:10, we got there and he wasn't there. We found out later that there was some miscommunication and he was ready at 11 and waiting for us, but since we didn't come they went to lunch. Next week for sure we will get him there! Right before Sacrament Nel called and said she would come to church but she would be late, so she was there for the end of Sacrament and the rest of church, Shes really cool as well. Born in Hungary and lived in Switzerland and Germany for most of her life. Super nice lady. We also had one of our investigators and a friend of hers come to Church, we taught them on Sunday, and Bruce is golden. I'm really excited to teach him. 

Today we came to Email and I guess the other sisters that live with us have been struggling and so we are doing exchanges with them today. I am with Sister Gonzalez today. We played some piano, we played some hymns and then I played my Enya song.. So I taught her the first part. She plays by ear, so it's perfect. Its been a good P-day so far and a really good week. I love you all!

Sister Gardner

Kellee's in Cali! with a new mission address

We just heard via e-mail from Kellee!  She says it is good to be there, she is excited. She misses us. 

Also, All mail needs to go through the mission home and send packages priority to the mission home with first and last name on it. 

Mission home address

Sister Kellee Gardner

7000 Central Ave.

Highland CA. 92346

Last day at the MTC 9-16-13

Dear family,

well i will keep this short because it's not p-day and we just have gym time to do laundry and pack up today. Last week at the temple we saw our branch presidents wife, she works there. Oh man she is the sweetest lady ever! We also had a really good devotional that night with Elder Martino from the 70, he focused on member missionary work and how we can work with them. Our Trc investigator on wednesday was really hard, she didn't let us in forever and  then she was kinda rude to us.. we knew she didn't believe in God, but we figured that since she had gone to church once she would have some interest, but she didn't.. she called us racist and hypocrites, so that was fun It was a good experience to know what rejection feels like :D Also we had a lesson and Elder Donaldson over mission curriculum came and sat in and it turned into a great discussion about the Atonement Mind Blown.
Sis. Rogerson and I also worked with the ZL's , Elder Vakamaelalo, and Elder Allen to give the tour to the new district so that was pretty fun, it's weird that being a week old suddenly makes you a pro around here :D. Thursday was the best day ever! Thank you all for the birthday letters and packages, it really was the best way to spend a birthday, the zone sang to me at every meal. We also had In-field orientation that day, it was kind of long, but I learned so much. Friday was mostly uneventful. Saturday we had an amazing lesson with Bro. Buahin, the spirit was amazing, especially since the day before we were all tired and couldn't focus. The Atonement and the Plan of Salvation are amazing by the way! Yesterday was also very good. Our devotional was with Brother Tanner, who helped produce 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue, we got to watch some clips from Ephraim's Rescue, Dad, I think you would really like it. For film time we watched the Character of Christ. It is a devotional by Elder Bednar. it is a MTC devotional, so I don't know if it is publicly accessed, but if you can find it anywhere, WATCH IT! it is the best thing ever! Life changing, Seriously. Anyways we head out tomorrow morning and we are all kind of freaking out. Im going to miss my district and zone, but they are all coming with so theres the possibility of seeing them again out there. Talk to ya later, love ya tons.

Sister Gardne

Kellee's first e-mail home 9/10/13

Dear Family, 

This past week at the MTC has been great! I have learned so much. We have class for about 6 hours each day, and I love it. My companion Sis. Rogerson is from North Carolina. We all have a progressing investigator, who also happens to be our teacher.. Bro. Smith is one of our teachers and Dan is our investigator. Things with him are going alright we had a rough first lesson, but thats because we didn't know anything, but the good thing is that we can always do better! He doesn't really see a need for the gospel in his life, which is hard for us to help him see that for him it would help him so much. Bro. Buahin is our other teacher, he is amazing. He's from Ghana, and his accent is so cool. He really knows how to bring the spirit and is willing to teach us what we need, and not necessarily what was planned for the day. The spirit here at the Mtc is amazing, we pray so much, but it is so good. 

Yesterday was kind of a struggle, both Sis. Rogerson and I were pretty discouraged about Dan and were just having a stressful day. I broke down while we did a little role play with Bro. Sebesta( another teacher) part of it was the spirit, but part of it was I was just at the end of my rope. Im surprised that I didnt break down in our lesson with Dan last night. After class though, we both received blessings from the Elders, which are so awesome. We are both doing much better today. Just glad its P-day and we get a little break. 

We get to go to the Temple today which I am so excited for. we also went for a temple walk on Sunday, I am attaching pictures of that. I think I've finally gotten used to my District, they finally broke my shell and I'm my usual weird self.. No big deal. 

So Sundays here are really interesting.. its kinda strange not having a 3 hour block, Sis. Rogerson and I are the Sister Training Leaders, so we got to go to branch council, then we have Relief Society with all the sisters at the Mtc. Before that though we have Music and the Spoken Word. Those were both really good. I actually saw Brianna Goodale, and then later that day we got a picture, so I think she will send that to Becca, I didn't have my camera with me. We didn't have Sacrament til 3:15, but we have that as a branch, which is our zone. There are 2 districts going to Redlands, so there are 16 of us, then there was a district with half going to Boise and half to Portland. That zone left yesterday and also this morning. Which reminds me, we get to leave next tuesday. wake up and leave at 3. that should be fun :D then our flight is at 8:30.. Back to Sunday.. That night we had a devotional with Brother Heaton, he's over admin here. It was really good. before that I went to Choir practice.. I guess that's what happens when all the girls in your district sing. It was really good though, even if I cant sing, I do better when I am with altos and I can match them, so Sis. Rogerson helps me out. I know there's probably more to say, but let me tell ya, Im pretty scatterbrained. Just a little stressed, but I am doing so much better. I love you all! I miss you guys a ton. and I know I don't have everyone on here, so I guess mom if you could see who I didn't get and forward that on, that would be great! 

Love, Sister Kellee Gardner

Sister Gardner is on her way!

Here's Kellee's MTC addresss, feel free to write!

Sister Kellee Brooke Gardner
SEP17 CA-RED
2007 N 900 E Unit 87
Provo UT 84602

Dear Sister Gardner..

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the California San Bernardino Mission. I couldn't be more excited. I definitely was not expecting to go to California, but I couldn't be happier to be there. I report September 4th. I am so excited, I can't put into words what i am feeling about this call, just that there has been a sense of peace that this is where I am supposed to go. The people of San Bernardino better be ready!

My Mission

This last week I had my interviews with my Bishop and Stake President, my papers should have been submitted yesterday morning. I am going on a Mission! I cannot believe the time is finally here. I can't wait to find out where I am going. These last couple of days though have been hard, I know that this is what I need to be doing. School has been stressful, it's the last couple of weeks and I feel like I have no time to do everything that I have to do. I would rather not do my homework, but there is this thing called graduation, and I kind of have to participate in that. So homework is a must, and life goes on. I talked with my bishop and he gave me some great advice. The Atonement is real people, and it will bring peace to your lives. I know that what I have been through and the trials that I have had have taught me so much and prepared me for my mission and the rest of my life. I love life, even now when some days I want to hate it and school. Really I am so blessed.
-Kellee

Conference

Conference is this weekend. I cannot wait. There is just something about it that makes me happy. I know the Lord speaks to us, his children, today. Conference is the perfect time to listen. Here are a few things I've learned. Everyone learns differently, some people can just listen to a talk and remember what they heard and felt. I am not one of those people. I have to take notes, and if I want to remember anything, I usually have to read them too. If I want to gain some insight from conference, I also have to be actively listening. I can't be distracted doing other things, I have to have a notebook and pen in hand ready to write down anything and everything. I used to knit or cross stitch while I listened to conference. I got nothing from it, I thought I was paying attention, but as I look back, I payed more attention to my project. It turns out that for a woman, I'm not that great of a multi-tasker! Sometimes God answers our prayers and our questions through his prophets, so I ask questions, write them down and keep them on my mind as I listen. I haven't always done this, like I said, I am learning, but the times that I have, I have received answers. I am on a mission, a mission to become the best me that I can be. Right now that involves going to college and graduating in a month, putting my mission papers in, and living each day to the fullest. I can't wait to serve the Lord full time for 18 months, but in the meantime and after that I plan on serving Him everyday in any way that I can. I hope you all have a wonderful conference weekend.
~Kellee