Looks like I'm gonna die in Alalay

Hey!

Yesterday was stake conference and the stake center was far away and we had never been there before haha, but we had investigators that we wanted to take (Raul's family). So we went to pick up this family of nine... Raul couldn't come but we were able to fit us and everyone else in one taxi and we made it to the conference. It was awesome because they talked a lot about the family and how important it is, which was exactly what this family needed to hear. The dad was listening and was very focused in everything that was being said. Both the mom and dad have problems with drinking, but they have a true desire to change and learn. We have high hopes for this whole family! It was funny because we actually had more investigators in the stake conference than we usually have in the normal ward meetings.

Oh and funny story. After the stake conference we were just about to eat with the Familia Salinas and we got a call from another one of our investigators. We had invited her to go to the conference in the stake center. It turns out she got there late (like an hour after the reunion ended), but entered the building and went to the bathroom even though there were only a couple people there. These people didn't realize she had entered and while she was in the bathroom the locked the church. She ended up getting locked in the church and called us, begging for help. We had to call the bishop and zone leaders so they could tell the members from this ward to go open the building so she could leave. So funny but sad at the same time. Luckily she had a good attitude about it and was laughing.

This week has been one that has made me think a lot about the things I need to change and do better. I read Alma chapter 5 this week which is one that definitely makes me think about my conversion and the things that I need to differently to be a better servant of Jesus Christ. I love that life is about constantly changing and trying to be better. It is not something easy but it is something that helps us become closer to our Savior and to become more like Him. I have also enjoyed studying the recent conference talks about missionary work. I love this quote from Elder Ballard: "It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best when we are on the Lord’s errand." How true is that! If we do our best we will have success! I love this work and feel so blessed to be a missionary in this time and place!

So you're probably interested to know what happened with my transfer haha. Wellp it was about 7:30pm when I got a call from President Hansen, which is definitely not normal cause the district leader is who usually calls about the transfers, so I kind of freaked out. He ended up explaining that he felt like I needed to stay in my area and be a sister training leader. Hermana Morales from Peru will come here and we will be the new STLs for three zones. I am excited and it should be fun. I am excited to go on exchanges with all the sisters and serve and love them. It'll be interesting though because neither of us knows how to be STL but I'm sure with the help of the Lord it'll work out okay. My companion, Hna Vara will be going to Scure! So I am sure she'll love that even though she is sad to leave. This means I will finish my mission (die) in this area--Alalay. I am excited because I love the people and the members and there is a lot of work to do.

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Hermana Gardiner

I LOVE MD

I am so tired of driving. So tired of studying the Code of the road. So tired of dealing with all the little things that come with driving a car. I hate cars.

Auto Ecole is going great! It’s just really, really not fun. And I would much rather be proselyting. But! I’m definitely improving and getting less and less questions wrong. It’s hard at the beginning when you don’t know all of the vocabulary, but I’ve pretty much got it figured out now.

On a much happier note...

I LOVE MONT DORE. Not only is it GORGEOUS, the people here are incredible. We have some awesome investigators, awesome members. It’s incredible!

Plus, I have the coolest companionship in the world. Soeur Maleb and Soeur Tehanin are sooo funny. We get along so well. We all admitted during companionship inventory that we were scared to be together but it is SUCH an incredible companionship. It’s so much fun all of the time, and its awesome in lessons. As President Brewer would say, we have an ideal companionship. Three different cultures! So cool. That makes it so we can connect easily to EVERYONE. I never want different companions.

It’s just crazy how different things are chez the Tahitians, chez the Melanesians, chez the French. It’s a good different, it’s what makes us unique. Happily, the gospel brings us together as brothers and sisters. :) Love it! I’m so grateful to be here and see so many other ways of life.

Je vous aime troooop!! Passez une bonne semaine.

Soeur Gardiner

Zion, otherwise known as Mont Dore

Io Ra Na!!!

So transfers were really weird. It was the first time new missionaries have come in my whole mission, and there were 4 sisters and 5 elders. It was just kind of overwhelming haha, but awesome too. Just felt soo surreal!

Oh yeah, 6 months... what? Where did the time go? I swear I just barely left, like yesterday. Crazy.

I love Mont Dore. It’s a super nice, beautiful area. It’s like Dumbea of the South. :) There’s a very realistic possibility that I will stay here for the rest of my mission, and that’s fine with me.

Sunday was AWESOME. The ward is super small compared to the ward I was in but man, everyone is so HAPPY. And so welcoming!! And our amis here are super awesome, they love coming to church and reading the book of Mormon. It’s great!!! 

My companions are awesome. It’s a COMPLETELY different dynamic from how it was with Soeur Martinez and Soeur Raney but its good. We all come from different places but we all want to be obedient and work hard, so that’s what’s important.

Since Soeur Tehanin is going to New Zealand, we practice speaking English every other day. One of my favorite things is hearing Soeur Tehanin and Soeur Maleb speak to each other in English. :) soooo cute haha. They’re both super good at it!

So, yeah! Things are going great. I start auto ecole Tuesday, pray for me! I need all the help I can get so that I can pass as soon as possible and get back to real missionary work.

This last week was a little all over the place and so was this letter haha... next week will be better.

Love you all!! Have a fantastic week everyone. I sure will!

Soeur Gardiner

Francophones. Plural.

A Vanuatese, a Tahitian, and an American walk into a bar.

Sounds like the beginning to a cheesy joke, right? Turns out, the only joke about that phrase is the fact that we would walk into a bar.

I’m going to..... drumroll please.....

MONT DORE.

Didn’t see that one coming, did you? Neither did I! I will be companions with the lovely Soeur Maleb from Vanuatu, and finishing the training of Soeur Tehanin, a Tahitian sister from here who weighs too much to go on her mission to New Zealand! So that brings an interesting challenge. I will definitely be the chef of the house, which means I have to get two islanders to start wanting to eat healthy food.

I NEED HEALTHY EASY YUMMY RECIPES. Recipes that will help my cute companion get to New Zealand sooner than later. Please? Help me. I’m counting on you friends and family! I will appreciate the help so much. Dinners, desserts that are secretly healthy, HELP.

Plus I am the only one out of the three that knows how to drive a car. haha.

This is definitely going to be a challenge, but I know that I’m up to it. They will help me SO MUCH with French, it’ll be awesome. Plus Soeur Maleb can teach me Bislama. :) So excited.

But also heartbroken to leave Dumbea. So hard to leave people that you love so much...

Speaking of people I love so much. We haven’t seen Morina and Nato all transfer, because they’ve had family here from Wallis. Every time I tried to call they said no because they were too busy.

Well, as usual? Most of our miracles happen when other lessons fall through. Soeur Martinez asked, "What are we doing now?" And I said, "Morina and Nato." Arrivé, THEY WERE BOTH HOME. We shared some of Moroni 7 and Nato cried. Such miracles. We have a soirée set up for Thursday! SO amazing. The Lord really is directing us and leading us to where we need to be.

I love you all so much! Thank you so much for the love, prayers, letters, recipes. I appreciate it so much!

JE VOUS AIME.

Soeur Gardiner

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

The Lord just doesn't let you get comfortable, does he?‏

Me with my cute new companion, Hna Vara! She was a trooper and made it to church with her foot all taped up and two different shoes (thanks hna wilson for leaving your sandal;))

Once again it has been quite the week! I was just getting used to the trio life, when I got the call from the assistants that I was getting a companion!!! Her name is Hna Vara. She is from Lima, Peru and has 2 months in the mission. Her trainer was sick and had to go home so I now have the opportunity to be with her! She is so so amazing and has such a desire to work hard as a missionary. I feel like I have learned so much from her in just the couple days we have had together. She is so diligent and has such a positive attitude.

Friday we had such a wonderful second day together, teaching lessons, finding new investigators and serving the members. As we were heading to the pension after doing service in the Bishop's house it was dark and my companion didn't see a high step that we had to step down from. It was so sad because we were all happy and laughing arm in arm as she fell and hit the ground so hard. She told me she thought she hurt both of her ankles. My only thought was "oh no, I am going to have to send home two companions this transfer." haha. But luckily that was not the case. After getting help from some members that were passing by she got cleaned up in the church and then we went to the hospital. Luckily she didn't break a bone and it was just a sprain. She had to stay off of it for two days though which was a huge bummer cause we were so excited to work. But now everything is better and she'll be good to work this week.

It's just so funny cause at the start of this transfer I thought that it was going to be a transfer super chill where we would just work hard every day hitting the streets, but the Lord definitely had something else planned. It's been hard because there is nothing I love more than just getting out and working but now I am learning how to go with the flow and how to trust more in the Lord and that he'll take care of it all. And more than anything I have learned how to love and serve my companions. Every one of them has been so amazing and wonderful. I feel so blessed.

This week I finished reading "Our Heritage" from the mission library. I just loved this book so much and especially the end when it talks about all the latter-day prophets. I just felt such a sweet feeling knowing that the Lord really talks to prophets today to lead and guide us. It is amazing to see how the prophets and their apostles give everything to serving the Lord. I love reading their talks as well in the conference Ensign. We are so blessed to be led by prophets. I feel much gratitude for the opportunity to be a missionary and help them in their efforts to bring the gospel to the people here in Bolivia. What a wonderful and beautiful time it is to be serving the Lord.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hermana Gardiner