So we just found out transfers and I get to go to Yucaipa! I kind of had a feeling I would be leaving, but Sis. Davis has been here longer so it could be either of us.
This week was awesome! It makes me sad to leave because this was probably one of the best weeks! We taught Josh and Diana, they are so awesome. The Martins are doing well. We were so blessed this week with new investigators. We have been struggling with referrals lately but we had actually had some this week. We walked around in Joshua Tree to people we caroled to on Christmas Eve and met Gregorio. We also met some other people, but we gave them to the Elders. Monday, January 20, 2014
I am going to Yucaipa!
A Wonderful Week
This week we had so many blessings and I know they came after the trial of our faith.
On Tuesday we went out to a part-member family, The husband Steve works on cars and we decided to let him look at our car (it was making some weird noises when we went on dirt roads) and talk to him. He actually did find something wrong with our car, so that was good. He has a pretty crazy past, but he is ready to make changes in his life and agreed to meet with us, we taught him on Thursday, and it went pretty well.We were able to set an appointment with Estela for today, which I am so excited for. I don't know if I have ever talked about her but we met her before Christmas and we were able to teach her a brief restoration. This time her husband will be there, we actually saw them at the store this morning, ah I am excited!
On Thursday we met Jon, who is Melinda's husband who has decided to start taking the lessons as well. He had several questions, which we tried to answer. We taught him part of the restoration on Friday. Basically he wanted to come to church to see what it was all about, he seemed a little overwhelmed, but I think he liked it.
Bro. Perez, our Ward Mission leader, has been inviting his family to church for a while and they have been coming the last 2 or 3 weeks, which is awesome. He is so excited for them and we are too. They love the spirit that they feel in the church and we finally get to teach them this week!
We had several people come to church this week that we hadn't seen in a while, I love it when that happens!Monday, January 6, 2014
Happy New Year 1/6/14
Happy New Year everyone!
This Email will be very short, Sorry but I really don't have much to say this week.
This week has been pretty good, I don't really have much to talk about except Bruce's Baptism! I can't believe this day came. He was ready but he didn't feel ready for so long. He has come so far, He has made friends in the Singles branch and most of the branch was there. It was awesome!
On Saturday we went to the Swap Meet and met a deaf man, luckily Sis. Davis knows her stuff. We might set up a booth there each week, which would be pretty fun I think.
This week I have learned alot from Sis. Davis, her testimony really inspires me.
Today we went to Joshua Tree National Park with Melinda, it was really cool. Funny story, last night we were at a members home right by our old apartment aka the Elders apt. so we came out to our car looking like this:
It was kind of a rough day for me, so it was a good laugh. Anyways Thats about all for this week.. Love you all!
Sister Gardner
Christmas and a Mission Conference 12/30/13
So this Email is a little later than usual because this morning we had a Mission Conference with Elder Kent F Richards of the 70. I will talk more about that later, It was amazing.
Christmas Eve we went to a care center and caroled to the people there, it was so much fun, not to mention I got to play the flute. I really kind of miss that.
It was so great to get to talk to the family on Christmas! I love you all and wish we had more time. The rest of our day was awesome, we got together as a zone and opened presents. The elders made spaghetti and as a joke they also made Elf spaghetti and we all had to try it. it was full of sugar and complete with maple syrup :D
We spent the rest of Christmas caroling and delivering cookies and cards to our investigators and our less actives. It was so much fun and amazing to see their faces light up.
On Friday we went over to Velma's and she wasnt home so we started walking down the street toward the park by our old apartment. We get stopped by a man driving and he asks us for a Book of Mormon, it turns out he is a member who drove truck and lost his scriptures. He is in our ward boundaries but hasn't been to church because of his job.. we found out that it had been about 3 years. Anyways we didn't actually have any books on us so we told him we would have one at church on sunday for him and then we got his address. He came to church! this is when we found out that it had been 3 years. I don't know what made him decide to come back, I think a lot of it had to do with being needed. He and his wife lived in the other ward and now are divorced, which is when he started driving truck and not coming. He was lost, but I am so excited for him to come back!
On Thursday we found out we would be having a mission conference today and that our P-day would be split up between today and tomorrow.
The Mission Conference was in Redlands and since I have been out over 12 weeks I get to drive now. Sis. Davis and I take turns but I got to drive there, Yay for California Freeways :D We even got to do some off roading in Redlands, that was fun. We basically go off roading every day here in Yucca though. The Elders told us about the road and that it would be a little scary. We got to the dirt road and it was pretty steep at first and we almost thought we were about to go off a cliff. After Sis. Davis checked it out and made sure it was an actual road we went down and then got right on the freeway. That was our little adventure for the day :D.
The conference was amazing though. I learned so much and it's going to be really hard to summarize, but Elder Richards talked about how we need to teach simply and to teach TRUTH. There are 4 Essential truths that our investigators need to understand, and if they don't understand these, then they can't understand the implied truths that go along with them. It was a great reminder that we need to keep things Simple. We need to take the time to listen to them. All I have to do is teach simply! He talked a lot about understanding and gave us lots of scriptures. Sister Richards talked to us for a while about why we are here. She gave an example from President Eyring's biography about "the redheads" and how the choices he made in his life were because of "the redheads". The redheads he talks about are his future children. I am here on a mission giving other families the opportunity to have the blessings of the Gospel and to benefit my future children. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the gospel and how it has blessed my family and how it can continue to do so. President Van Cott talked to us about repentance. Repentance is "a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world." (BD Repentance). Those 3 things are related to Faith, Hope and Charity. When we have a "fresh view" of God we have Faith, when we have a "fresh view" of ourselves we have Hope, and when we have a "fresh view" of the world or others, we have Charity.
There were so many thoughts shared today, and I wish I could just write them all.
Thank you all so much for your love and support! I love you all and hope you have a fabulous New Year!
Love,
Sister Kellee Gardner
Merry CHRISTmas! 12/23/13
Merry Christmas everyone,
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year!
This was the sunset on Tuesday this week, I experimented with my panoramic mode, It was the coolest sunset!
So Tuesday was a busy day. We had Zone meeting which was so AWESOME! We talked about our investigator Emily and her concerns and Elder Urry challenged the whole zone to pray for her. To me that was such a reminder and testimony of faith. Through God anything is possible. After that we had some awesome lessons planned that all fell through, but on our way to our back up we got a call from Elder Crossman, the senior missionary over housing asking us if we wanted to move today. So when we got elders in the area we thought they would be getting the new apartment and we would just stay, but apparently not. Luckily we had a few hours on our hands now to go home and pack and move our stuff over. Crazy, but our new apartment is nice and we are truly blessed! Our water heater is not currently working though so a few cold showers this week have been fun :D.
Thursday we met with the Bruce and he is so ready for Baptism on the 4th!
On Friday we met with Emily. We talked to her about prayer. We knew she felt good about what she was learning and wanted to continue but we noticed as she prayed with us and asked if she should be baptized she wasn't really listening after. We had a great lesson with her and committed her to make a decision, then ask God.
Saturday was really good, we went to the Stake center for breakfast. The Stake likes to do that every couple of transfers to get to know the missionaries and just have a little meeting. It was really good; Pres. Lotze shared 2 Cor. 9:15 "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." I am so grateful for that gift. One of the ways that it is unspeakable is that as we talk about Christ, it is the Spirit that is teaching and speaking.
Yesterday started out kind of rough, I was discouraged and frustrated with myself. As the morning went on it started turning around though. Sister Davis and I started writing each other little notes of things we noticed or just notes of encouragement a couple of weeks ago, I can't tell you how many times those notes have been just what I needed to hear! Yesterday was one of those times, we have companions for a reason! Things that she shared in study and things that others said throughout the day helped me to realize that I am doing ok and I am doing my best. We had dinner with the Madsens and they invited a family over who they are friends with. Funny story: we went to go meet a less-active family and we knock on the door, meet a woman named Stacy and her daughter, not the less-active we planned on, we apologized and went next door to the right house. Met the family, the wife grew up in Quincy WA, (Don't worry dad, I asked if she knew you or Bryce, she didn't but her dad might). We talked with them and then went over to the Madsens for dinner. We walked in and there was Stacy and her family :D. Kind of awkward, but it was alright. They are a really cool family, and we might teach them eventually.
Thank You all for your prayers and support, I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas. I am sending another email with a video attached. It is the Christmas Spirit Mormon message. I love the reminder that it is! Give a gift to Christ this year!
Love,
Sister Kellee Gardner
The Christmas Spirit 12/23/13
I want to invite you to watch this video and take time to remember the true meaning of Christmas. I know that God loves each one of us and has given us the greatest gift ever. What can we give to Christ this year on Christmas? I love you all! Merry Christmas.
Sister Kellee Gardner
http://www.mormonchannel.org/December in the Desert 12/16/13
I have noticed a pattern in each week. There are highs and lows, we have dropped appointments and disappointments every week, but there are always miracles and tender mercies. These change week to week, and it is amazing to see God's hand in the work.
On Tuesday we had planned to go and help some people paint, we got there and they wouldn't let us help.. they were nice about it, but we were kinda bummed. We talked to their neighbor though afterwards and introduced him to the Book of Mormon. He said he would read it and that we could come back and teach him next week, we also met someone out chopping a tree stump. He goes to Joshua Springs, which most people who go there, say "We're Christian, and we aren't interested..we go to Joshua Springs" or something to that effect, anyways we asked him if he had ever heard of the Restoration of the Gospel, he hadn't but we explained that the same gospel that Christ taught and established while he was on the earth has been restored to the earth today. We could see that that sparked his interest and we set an appointment for this Wednesday.
We met with several less actives this week, which was good. On Thursday we met with Nora, who is one of the coolest recent converts ever, she is awesome, everytime we teach her, my testimony is strengthened, She is getting married in April and she wants us to be there, I wish we could but first its at the LA temple and second we weren't the ones who taught her.. Ah I love her!
We gave the Elders some of our investigators like Vic and George, they were able to meet with George, as well as a less active recent convert. It is going to be so awesome to have 2 sets of missionaries here in our ward, the work is going to EXPLODE!
We had our ward Christmas party and Bro. Constantino had invited some non members and less-actives, so that was awesome to see them there.
Thank you all for your encouraging and inspiring emails each week! I love you all!
Sister Kellee Gardner
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