Para, para, paradise :)‏

 Welcome to the hotel Konéfornia

 Isn’t our backyard gorgeous?

 After your average day of prosélytisme

You know just your average pack of horses in the field you walk through to get to the village every day when you live in Koné

Welp, hello everyone!

First of all... I AM IN LOVE WITH KONE! It is so so gorgeous. Everyone is so so friendly! I couldn’t be happier! :) I don’t want to jinx myself but I really wouldn’t mind staying here for the rest of the mission. :)

First of all, Zone Conference was awesome. I had an awesome interview with President. He gave me lots of good advice. He is such a wise man. Then in the actual Zone Conference, he really laid it down. He told all of us that we could do better. It was awesome.

Funny story... At Zone Conference, the Zone Leaders told us that we wouldn’t be able to leave for Koné until Saturday or maybe even Sunday. So Friday we are sitting doing our studies when all of a sudden we get a phone call from the Zone Leaders telling us they’d be there in 15 minutes to pick up our stuff because we were leaving to Koné right then. AH! Haha, we definitely weren’t expecting that. We threw everything together as fast as we could and off we were!!

The house was a greasy mess when we got there. There was just this sticky layer of gunk all over EVERYTHING in the kitchen. President told me that the first thing I needed to do was get the house in order, so we did. I scrubbed that stove for a good three hours straight and it still isn’t perfectly clean. 

Sunday was pretty interesting. None of us had bread so we just used crackers for the Sacrament. We do have one active member, the annex president, President Mukadi. Hes from South Africa and hes super cool. He left his family in Africa and came here to work in the mines on a contract for two years.... that contract ends the end of March. It’s a huge bummer he is leaving. We will definitely need to reactivate our inactives so that we aren’t left completely on our own! We have appointments set up with two inactive families tomorrow :)

Other than that, we have just been trying to find people! We started with our neighborhood just to try and introduce ourselves. Then we’ve been contacting and porte a porteing and all that good stuff. Nothing quite miraculous has happened yet, but I’ve learned to just be patient and keep working hard. :)

Have a great week! Love you all!

xoxoxo

Soeur Gardiner

How many sisters does it take to kill one cockroach?

‏

 Saying goodbye to Josie

 Cleaning off in the Stake Presidents river after doing service on his ginormous jungle property.

 Corossol.... the weirdest yummiest fruit I have ever tasted. You can’t compare it to any other fruit. It’s amazing!

 Triooooo. :)

 Because I guess it’s normal to see wild parrots all the time when you live on an island.

Here’s the answer: one. The other four are on the other side of the room standing on chairs and screaming. Haha, my two companions are both deathly afraid of bugs, and so are Soeur Gauthier and Soeur White. Needless to say, I’m the one that has to take care of the cockroaches.

So here’s the scoop: We aren’t in Koné yet. Super lame. We have Zone Conference with President Brewer next Thursday, so they don’t want to go all the way up to Koné just to come back down. Gah so frustrating. I JUST WANNA GET TO WORK IN KONE!!

So we are stuck staying in Dumbea Sur Mer until next Friday. Not that I don’t absolutely adore Dumbea or Soeur White and Soeur Gauthier, it’s just that I want to get to work so badly!!!!!! Argh. That means that by the time we get to Koné, two of six weeks worth of work are automatically down the toilet. Huuuuge bummer.

Trying to stay a little positive about the situation though! One fantastic part of being here was yesterday I got to see Vaiarii bless the sacrament. My eyes may have watered a little bit :) He’s already doing missionary work too! He invited a friend to church last week, and he came again this week! He wants to be taught by the missionaries!! Wahoo! I’m so so proud of him :)

Sorry this is lame. I promise next weeks will be a whole lot more exciting! I’m so so so so so excited to get up to Koné and get to work. If I ever get there, that is.... Ha.

Oh yeah, and today is my 10 month mark. Double digits... we are really getting down to the wire here. Why does time fly so quickly? I just want to be a missionary forever.

Love you all!!!

xoxoxo

Soeur Gardiner

The other side of the other side of heaven...‏

We love the bishop’s wife!!!

The thing I made for the thank you party our ward threw for Elder and Soeur Pecqueux, who have finished up their missions. It was a hit!

I may good at writing but look at what the Tahitian sisters did for the party! Wow... It’s incredible. I tried weaving one myself but it did NOT turn out the same haha

I look kinda crazy heh but this is me with Soeur Pecqueux!

So I have some good news and some super crazy news.

Let’s start with the good news first. I'm staying with Soeur Tellus!!! Wahoo!! I’m so happy! We have gotten sooo much better at teaching together and the fruits of our labors are just starting to show, so I am so happy we get to keep going! En plus I just really love Soeur Tellus. :) Aaaand we have a new addition to our team as well! Soeur Westerlind. She is from California and she got here right when Soeur Tellus came. Wahoo!

And now for the super crazy news...

We aren't staying in Motor Pool. We aren't even staying in the south. That's right....

WE ARE GOING TO KONE.  Yes. Did you hear that right? Koné. The one up NORTH. The one where sister missionaries have NEVER gone before. The one that doesn't even have a branch, but an annex to a branch with no active members except for the missionaries. (There will be a set of Elders up by where we are as well.) We are going there. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Mom, please don't freak out :) It is actually pretty civilized up there. It’s like the capital of the North. There are stores and streets and things. And the internet I’m pretty sure!! But I mean... It won’t be anything like Noumea. I’m so excited!!!!!!!!

Heavenly Father has definitely prepared me for this. We will be whitewashing from Elders and literally starting from scratch all over again. I am so grateful for the experiences that I have had here in Motor Pool to get me ready, because I couldn't have gone straight from Mont Dore to Koné without learning a little more about how to build up a secteur first. It feels good to know that President trusts me enough to put me up there. We are sooo PUMPED to take on this challenge.

But of course we are getting moved right as things are going perfectly. Last Wednesday we set baptism dates with Lovina and with Josie! It’s a huge bummer that we can’t continue to work with them but it is super cool to know that fruits are coming from our labors. Wow!! Elders will be replacing us.

Welp... there ya go! We head up there on Friday. It takes about three hours to get there. Ah I am so excited!! Ready or not, here we go.

Love you all so much! Next week I’ll be emailing you from the wilderness!!! :)

xoxoxo

Soeur Gardiner

I couldn’t be happier. Really.‏

Bonjour tout le monde!!!!!

I just wanted to start out this email by letting you all know that I am SO HAPPY. I have never been happier in my entire life!!! The joy I feel I just can’t even put into words. I was sitting next to Soeur Harding and Soeur Martinez during conference (since my companions were listening in French) and I just realized how HAPPY I feel here. How happy I am that I have met all of these incredible people, missionaries and amis, who I never would’ve met otherwise. I love this gospel so much!! I love being a missionary!!

And I LOVED conference sooo much. It was so incredible! My favorite session was without a doubt the Saturday Morning session. I looooved the metephor that the Korean seventy made about the man with palsy!! Missionaries and members working together is sooo crucial in this work.

Speaking of the importance of members, we ate at the family Marvons on Friday, and they pointed out that Frere Marvons father had read the ENTIRE Book of Mormon and wanted to get baptized. He is an old ami from a long time ago that we wouldn’t have even known existed without their help! They also pointed out several families in their apartment complex that had met with the missionaries in the past and would be ready to meet with them again.  It’s so important that the missionaries and members work together!

And remember how I told you last week that Sovita and Florence had a problem with the word of wisdom? Well. At our last appointment before Sovita broke his foot, they decided that THEY were going to teach us the next lesson. So, we gave them some Word of Wisdom brochures and they said they would prepare the lesson. ça y est, Sovita broke his foot and was in the hospital, so we weren’t able to have a lesson until Monday, and it was only with Florence. She understood the Word of Wisdom PERECTLY, and the fact that our bodies are temples so we need to take care of them. She said that giving up smoking and coffee was no problem at all, and she was happy to do it! She said that in the hospital, Sovita started taking hot chocolate instead of coffee--something VERY untypical of him. So yeah, apparently they don’t have a problem with the Word of Wisdom at all!

I love you all!! A la prochaine! :)

xoxoxo

Soeur Gardiner

I FEEL BLESSED.‏

Hey my dear family!

I love you all so much! Can you believe how fast this week went by? It's freaking me out. But when you are working hard and having fun time flies. This week was amazing and I learned so much. There were so many little blessings. And big ones as well. It was great.

We had two awesome intercambios this week. One of them was especially special because I was in the area where my trainer, Hna Moscoso started her mission. In this intercambio with Hna Callata Lord was giving me answers to my prayers and He gave me the strength that I needed spiritually. We had the opportunity to see two priesthood blessings in two of our lessons. It was amazing. There was a mom with her disabled daughter. This mom was so distraught and tired. The spirit was as strong as we testified of the love that God has for her and her daughter and as the brother that was accompanying us gave her the blessing. We also taught a family--a dad and his five kids (his wife is in Spain). They have passed through so many trials recently, bad health etc. It was so so sad to see this grown man cry as he explained what was going on in his life. I felt so much 

hope for him though as we testified of the blessings of the gospel and he and his kids are excited to come to church this next Sunday. His son is really sick and he also received a priesthood blessing. I am so grateful for the priesthood and the blessings that come from it. How amazing it is to have the restored gospel here on the earth!

We were also able to have so many miracles in our area! I don't know if I ever talked about a lady... She is one of my favorite, most special investigators in our area. I don't know why but I had always been afraid to invite her to be baptized... maybe because she is a teacher for the first communion and confirmation in the Catholic Church... but this week we just decided to do it and invite her to be baptized. It was amazing. She expressed how she felt the need to be baptized like Jesus did someone older and that chooses for himself. She also said that she feels like what we teach is true and that as she has learned from us she has found a happiness that she didn't have before. She accepted the baptism date and I am so excited to see how she will progress!

We also have many other investigators that are progressing and others that have the potential to progress. I am excited to see what the Lord has instore for us this week. We have also seen so many blessings in our area and the work is progressing so much! I feel so blessed to be a missionary and to love and serve the Lord in his vineyard every day!

I love you all! Sorry there aren't photos this week... we're in a bad internet and I don't want to get bugs on my camera... next week for sure!

LES AMO,

Hermana Gardiner

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