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