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