July 22, 2013
Dearest Family,
Woah. What a week! So last Tuesday, we planned a lesson
for a 60ish woman named, Karen. Apparently, she would only sometimes
answer the door, so we planned a 5 minute lesson to give to her at the doorstep
to get her interested in our message. Well, we didn't even have to give
her that, she just let us in. She's very depressed and very upset
with God. She was on the verge of tears the whole time we were talking to
her. She lost her husband, 2 brothers, her dad, and her mom had a stroke
in 5 years. We talked to her and I know she felt the spirit but Satan is
going to do everything that he can to prevent her from praying and receiving
comfort. We're praying for her and we are visiting with her again on
Thursday.
We've also been visiting with a 30 year old investigator, name
Angela. She is living with Dan, a less-active. They have 2
daughters and they are going to have them blessed on September 1. She
knows the gospel is true and would get baptized tomorrow, except she and Dan
can't get married for some legal reason... like her name would get changed and
then someone would sue Dan. They are really annoyed, but they've been
going to church and keeping all the other commandments. We're praying
that they can get married soon.
On Friday, we got to go help with the flood relief in High River.
That was the most incredible, humbling, sad, and hopeful experience of my
life. First, we met at the church and got safety instructions, gum boots,
Mormon "helping hands" vests, white overalls, safety glasses, and
darth-vadar looking respirator masks, etc. Then we went to the house that
desperately needed help. They looked so grateful that we were there.
The outside of the house looked perfectly fine, except the water line
that was all the way up to the window, but in the basement was a completely
other story. It was moldy, covered in mud and sewage, and everything was
broken. It was so sad looking and they had just finished their basement 3
days before the flood hit. First, we broke the window so we could take
EVERYTHING out of the house. We tore apart furniture, took the tv off the
wall, moved mattresses, tore down cupboards, removed old boxes, threw away old
pictures, a prized fur coat, and other precious but in-salvageable items.
I found old coins and picked them all up. The man was a coin
collector and when I gave them to him, he was never so grateful. The
basement was completely empty... but then we took out the carpet, the sinks,
the tile, floor boards, and the wall. At first, I felt really strong
tearing apart the wall and everything, but then it made me sad realizing it
wasn't my strength, it was just completely molded and falling apart. Then
we tore out the wood and foamy insulation stuff behind the wall. Nothing
was left. I can't imagine how hard that would have been if I was doing
that to my own home. But after we were done and we loaded it all to the street
to get taken away. The man had washed 12 silver Canadian coins and gave
one to each of us that helped. He said to think of the service we'd done
every time we see it.
President Nicholaus said that Airdrie is the slowest area of the
mission and we will probably just be doing a lot of seed planting, but we were
also promised that because of our efforts for flood relief, we'd be blessed and
the work will pick up in a couple of months. Right now, we are doing a
lot of finding and service. Tracting is no fun. Haha sometimes I
feel like they are saying "Nay tag" or whatever Samuel said!
But President doesn't want us tracting very much anymore, but we have to
find people somehow. We are working to get the ward more involved.
Everyone here has a garden and some sort of inside pet. I've
been enjoying helping less-actives in the garden and I've been eating some
really good strawberries!
Last night, we made sushi with a member couple that served a couple
years ago in Micronesia, in Yap! It was the best sushi I've ever had!
I love being a missionary.
-Sister Gardner
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