It's a Monday... :)‏

 Old Shoe vs New Shoe!

 waterfall in Tiquipaya

waterfall in Tiquipaya

Hey fam!!!

We had a fantastic week! It really is so great to be working with Hermana Vara and I feel so blessed to be her companion. We had so many great experiences this week. One of them was that our pensionista/relief society president went out to accompany us and we walked past an old friend's house. She felt like she needed to call this friend, Graciela, and invite her to talk to us. A couple days later we had a lesson with Graciela in my pensionista's house. It was such a powerful lesson as we had the help from two members. The spirit was so strong and Graciela accepted a baptismal date without a second thought. It was amazing. Graciela has such a desire to learn and know which of all the churches are true. I know the Spirit was so much a part of this whole experience and will be crucial in the progress of Graciela. This experience reminded me of how important the members are in the work of salvation. I love how the Lord knows each of us individually and is always putting people in our pathway that are prepared for this wonderful gospel!

I don't know if I told you guys about the Salinas Family.... so I will now. Haha. Once upon a time we were leaving our apartment and a guy stopped us and told us that he wanted us to visit him and his family. It turns out they had just moved back from Spain and had been inactive for years. The dad, Juan Pablo, explained how he wanted to come back to church with all his family. He has his wife, Maribel and two kids Juan David (10 yrs. old) and Carolina (7 years old) and they are seriously the cutest family ever. Juan David was never baptized so he is now preparing for his baptism for August 16th. It is awesome because they are wanting to use the baptism as a missionary opportunity. They are going to invite family members and friends from school. It is amazing to see there excitement to return to the church and share this message as well. They are also preparing to get sealed!!! It is so exciting and I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to help a family make it to the temple. What a special thing it is.

Today was a good p-day. We went to a waterfall in Tiquipaya which was cool and different from the usual stuff we do here Cochabamba! We also ran into President and Hermana Hansen and their daughter at the grocery store. Their daughter is finishing her last three weeks of her mission here in Bolivia before she goes back to BYU. I have such a great love for Pres and Hermana Hansen. They are seriously so awesome.

Life is great here and we're working hard! I just love being a missionary so much! I also love all of you and hope you have a great week!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Gardiner

Not Dumb Dumbea

 Soeur Martinez and I!

 Soeur Raney's goodbye party with the ward missionaries

Goodbye Soeur Raney. :(

Bonjour tout le monde!

This week has been just CRAZY. I have never been so exhausted in my life! Taking care of two separate secteurs is insane, but I think we are doing the best we can. We are working hard to merge our schedules together. So far it has gone really well. Not to mention, Soeur Martinez is so amazing. Heavenly Father definitely knew that there was no way two missionaries could do the work we have to do unless we really loved each other. :) It was hard seeing Soeur Raney leave (Soeur Martinez and I both cried for a good while) but all good things must come to an end. So weird to think that Soeur Raney is a normal human now... haha. Anyways, I am SO blessed to be with Soeur Martinez. Ah, Heavenly Father is the best planner.

Its been an awesome week! We had an awesome lesson with our young investigator. He is just such a troubled angsty teenager. We are just going to keep loving him and praying for him. He says that he will come to church next week! We will see.

We had an awesome soiree familiale with the family Likhau. They are a part member family we have been trying to work with for a long time. They have 8 kids, and they are so cute. They were so excited to have us teach them. The mom said they wanted to have a soiree familiale and invite a bunch of their friends to introduce them to the gospel! Wow! Such a great family. I am so excited to work with them more.

Oh yeah, yesterday I ate rabbit. It was really well prepared, and tasted delicious! Everyone should eat rabbit more.

Lets see... there’s so much to say and so little time. Oh, I might be starting Auto Ecole this week... awkward because if I do start, we really won’t have time to work a ton in our secteur(s). Getting a French permit takes so much time! I am not really sure what I am going to do yet, I have been praying a lot but I still don’t know if I should go ahead and do it. It would put so much in jeopardy... we'll see. I have been driving a lot because Soeur Martinez won't be driving anymore. It took a little time to get used to again haha but my driving’s getting better every time.

My French has improved sooo much! I feel like I can really teach now, and I can really express myself. And understanding comes pretty naturally. I can talk to people and have real conversations! Super awesome. I know I couldn’t have come this far without divine help. I am so grateful to be here and to be a missionary. I am so grateful for the help that I feel from my Heavenly Father every day, every second.

I love you all! Keep being member missionaries. N'oubliez pas qui vous etes.

Soeur Gardiner