Rainy Days and Mondays

                        This is a picture of Brother Lah. I have mentioned him several times.

                                         Crystal and Sister Nuttall enjoying the cooler weather.

                                          Did I say cooler? I think I meant cold and rainy.


September 23, 2013

Dearest family and friends

Yesterday was such a special day.  Gordon Miller finally got the priesthood! During high priest meeting, Bro. Horton ordained him and we got to be the special guests.  It was such a nice blessing and the Spirit was so strong.  Then, Gordon bore his testimony.  The usual goofy jokester talked very seriously as he testified on the restored church of Jesus Christ.  Afterwards, he pointed to Sister Nuttall and me and said, "Thank you, thank you."  I know I didn't teach him until after he was baptized, but I feel like I still have grown close to him.  It was such a wonderful experience.

We were able to meet with Rob and Delfino this week!  Rob really wanted to meet with a convert to the church, so we prayerfully asked Bro. Berryman in the ward to come with us.  It was such a good lesson and Bro. Berryman was perfect.  Rob is very sincere and he is reading and praying.  He's coming to church this week!  He also mentioned that for some reason out of the blue he started praying again a month ago and he didn't know why.  Then when Sister Nuttall and I knocked on his door he said his first reaction was, "I'm not interested, go away."  But then something told him, "Give it a chance, you've never looked into this religion before!"  Miracle?  Wow.  The Lord has been preparing people.  

Delfino is so funny! He grew up in Mexico but his mom is from Spain and his dad is half French, half Chinese.  He loved it the last time we came over and we are going to meet with him again this week!  He has been searching for a long time.  He has attended the Baptist church, the United church, the Catholic church, (and a couple others).  But he was never satisfied.  I think he will be with this church!

On Saturday, we tried to meet with Susannah Wingrove, but her grandparents (the Cordona's) opened the door.  They are members and temple workers.  They were so happy to see the missionaries and invited us in.  Immediately, they started talking about the Wingroves and how they broke their heart.  Susannah's parents want nothing to do with the church, but are fine with their children getting baptized.  In their broken English, they started crying and said that Heavenly Father would bless them and help their children come back.  It made me want to try even harder to help this family.  It'll be tough.  But because of the Cordona's we are now able to see what is going on in the family and the Wingrove's background in the church.

Bro. Lah wanted me to make SURE I gave my family his regards.  So he says hi!  I love visiting with this wise old man.  He has such a powerful testimony.

This week four people wanted to argue with us and told us that we needed to do "our research."  So the other night, I decided to do my research once again and I prayed to confirm my knowledge that the church was true.  My answer came straight from the Holy Ghost, not some anti-Mormon literature.  The church is true. Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer.  He lives! I love being his missionary.

Thanks for the love and prayers.  They are definitely felt!

Love,

Sister Crystal Gardner

From Crystal to crystal

September 16, 2013

Dearest Family and Friends

"Success in life is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm."

We had a successful week!  Most of our lessons cancelled on us, our investigator (Paul) on his date to be baptized dropped us, half our potential investigators don't want anything to do with us, the other half wouldn't answer their doors/phones, and we haven't been able to meet with Ariah in 2 weeks.  A miracle is coming and the Lord is just preparing me for it!

I've been studying a lot about the refiner's fire in the scriptures.  The Lord is our "refiner" and sometimes we need to be put in the fire (adversity, trials, etc.) for us to become separated from the dross and become perfect and precious stones.    

We were able to do a lot of service this week.  We helped out at a funeral and did all the preparation work so that the members of the ward and family could participate in the service instead of worrying about the food.  I find that because of all the service that we are doing for the ward and individual members, missionaries are getting a better name in this ward!  Now they are starting to want to help us.  Several members have asked if they could go with us to lessons and a few have asked for advice on how to share the gospel with others or reactivate straying children.  It's a big responsibility to be a missionary but I'm learning how to rely on the Savior more completely because little Crystal Gardner could not do this all by herself!

I truly love being a missionary! I can't believe all that I've learned in such a short time!  However, I still have a long way to go.... Luckily for me, I still have 15 1/2 more months to be in the refiner's fire so that one day I can be a little bit closer to become a more perfected "crystal". :)

Love you.

Love,
Sister Crystal Gardner

Wonderful Week

September 10, 2013

Dear Family and Friends

I think our family produces the cutest babies.  Vivian and Jane are both absolutely beautiful and they look just like their parents, it's fun to see the resemblance!  Thanks for sending me pictures.  Just so they know, they have the world's proudest aunt.  (I think every one is getting sick of me showing off their pictures.)

I have some very exciting news!  Paul von Chinnery is ON DATE to be baptized on October 5.  We are all very excited.  However, we have a lot of work to do.  He is very addicted to drugs.  He's quit other drugs and is now working on getting over smoking.  There was a baptism for an 8-year-old boy on Saturday, so he agreed to come.  I have never realized how awful drugs were until we were at the baptism.  Before it started he kind of had an anxiety attack.  I was sitting next to him and helped calm him down.  I don't know how many times I told him, "Everything is going to be all right." "You're okay, you're okay."  Once the prelude music started playing "Be Still My Soul", he said, "Sister Gardner, I'm okay now.  I'm calm."  He really enjoyed the baptism and kept talking about his own baptism in a couple of weeks!  I have a lot of faith in him, but I'm also very worried.  It'll be very hard for him to stop drugs where and with whom he lives.  He's been on drugs since he was 8 years old.  Neither Sister Nuttall nor I have ever dealt with people with addictions before, so we are definitely asking a lot of people for ideas and suggestions.  Paul doesn't have a car and the closest addiction recovery program is in Calgary.  But we did order the pamphlet.  These next couple of weeks will be interesting.  Any suggestions or (even better) prayers are accepted!

We haven't seen Karen since she was at church.  We have stopped by almost every day and she's never there.  We called and she said we could meet yesterday and she wasn't home (or didn't answer the door/phone.)  I don't know what is going on.  I know she felt the Spirit at church so maybe she's just scared.  We're not giving up.

I think I told you about Suzannah Wingrove, but if not, she is a 10-year-old girl that has a very inactive family.  We've been meeting with her and her family.  She desperately wants to get baptized and is ready, but we hesitate to baptize her until we get the family more active.  It would be such a shame to get her baptized and then the next week have her completely inactive because of her family.  So we are working with the whole family and we want the whole family to go to church for a month before Suzannah gets baptized.  The family really likes Sister Nuttall and me, so they are fine with us coming over several times a week.

The other day, we were walking down a developing community called Williamstown, when a Mexican man called to us.  "Who are you? I've seen you walk down here a couple of times before!"  We explained that we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  "Ah Mormons?!"  He then went on to explain that he went to our church for a year when he was dating a Mormon lady, but he went because he wanted to know and not for her.  Later they broke up and he moved, so he lost contact with thechurch.  He invited us to come and teach him and his son's friend that lives with them named Charlie (he's Filipino).  So we are going to teach the two of them this week! Like it says in preach my gospel, the Lord puts US in prepared people's paths or he puts PREPARED PEOPLE in our path.

Dan and Angela are doing great!  They are planning on getting married in February and we talked about temples and she is excited to go through the temple.  So now, we are focusing our lessons more to Dan.  He's been the inactive son of a very active family and Angela is the one that has brought him back to the gospel.  She's ready for any changes and she's bringing him along.    

Yesterday, after we were supposed to teach Karen a lesson and she didn't answer the door, we had an hour before dinner.  So we knocked on some doors.  I had a distinct feeling to go down a street.  One door caught my attention (maybe it's just because of the Yoga sign on the front door... (love Yoga) or maybe it was the Spirit!  We knocked on the door and this big guy (probably does Yoga everyday ;)) answered.  We introduced ourselves and he said, "Come on in".  He cleared the table and asked us to take a seat.  Then he said, "I'm ready."  Uhhh okay.  We started asking him about his religious background and what he knows about our church.  His wife is Buddhist, one of his parents was a Mennonite, and the other was Irish Catholic.  He says he's read every religion's scripture from the Koran to the Bible and everything in between and that he searched so hard that he doesn't know WHAT he believes anymore.  We introduced the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy.  He said, "I can't believe I've never read this before.  I'll read it.  It's not very big, I'll probably be done in like 2 weeks."  Woah.  I promised him that this is what he has been searching for.  He was amazed at my confidence and said he hoped that he could find out just like me.  We are meeting with him again tomorrow!

It's been a wonderful week.  I really love being a missionary.  It's amazing how much the ward looks up to these little baby missionaries and they come to us so much for help.  Yesterday, I held a poor old man's hand as he talked about his wife's death 2 days ago.  I love these people so much and they are really starting to trust me.  The little kids love me.  One 4-year-old girl in particular always tries to sit on my lap and unfortunately we're not allowed to let them do that, which is the hardest of all the mission rules!

I love my family.  You are what matter the most to me.  Thanks for raising me in the gospel.  I've never realized what an incredible blessing that was until I'm helping those that don't have it in their lives.

Be safe.  I'm praying for you.

Love (with all of my heart),
Sister Crystal Gardner

Look for Miracles

September 3, 2013

Dearest Family and Friends

Yesterday, we talked to a man on the street.  He was willing to talk and argue, but not to listen.  He went on a 30-minute rant on how there are no such things as miracles.  I feel bad for this man, because I see miracles every day of my life.  I hope you enjoy hearing about the miracles of this week!

I think I told you about Paul von Chinnery.  After our second lesson with him, we started reading with him in the Book of Mormon every day.  I love Paul.  He really tries hard to understand the Book of Mormon.  He takes every verse one at a time and reads it through several times until he completely understands it, then he comes up with an analogy to fit the verse, and then he figures out how he can apply it. Some days we only get through 7 verses with him, but it's incredible how much he is taking away from it (and after spending so much time on just a couple of verses, I feel like I'm learning a lot as well).  The second time we were reading with him, I asked him why he meets with us.  He said it's good for his brain... and he feels good when he reads the Book of Mormon and when we talk to him.  We explained it was the Spirit!  This morning we met with him again and felt like we needed to prepare to teach him the Word of Wisdom.  He is a German man and has probably been involved in every type of drug ever created, so we knew this was going to be a struggle for him.  Before we were able to talk to him about it, he told us decided he was going to stop doing drugs.  He said that as we have met with him, he feels like the Book of Mormon helps him feel better than doing the drugs and the Spirit has prompted him to stop!  Woah.  I was kind of in shock.  He didn't have a single cigarette on him and usually he ends our lessons so that he can go smoke.  Miracle #1.

I know that you are all anxious about Karen.  Well we met with her on Saturday and she was going to tell us if she wanted to get baptized on the 21st.  She said that she wasn't going to be in town after all and she decided to visit with her Mom in Oklahoma.  However, she agreed to come to church on Sunday!  We were so excited to have her there.  Angela and Dan were blessing their babies and it was testimony meeting!  I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about testimony meeting and our ward has so many young families that sometimes you can't hear because of the amount of children crying.  But I prayed that the children would be comforted and at peace and that she would feel the Spirit during the testimony meeting.  It was an amazing meeting.  The children were quiet and EVERY testimony addressed her concerns and needs.  Miracle #2.

Unfortunately, sometimes people don't want to hear the message of the gospel and reject it.  I'm getting pretty good at being rejected on the streets, but it's so much harder after teaching them for a couple of lessons.  You really start feeling how much Heavenly Father loves his children and when they don't want what will make them happy, it breaks my heart.  On Sunday, we taught Marcel again.  I don't think he has the right intentions and the sincerity that we hoped.  It was one of the hardest lessons that I've walked away from and it really hurts to see.  But you never know what seeds we are planting.  You never know what he may experience later in life and he will remember the missionaries.  I love these people so much.

A less-active family moved into the ward and their 11 year old wants to get baptized! So we will be teaching her and trying to get her family activated as well!

There are many, many more miracles I've seen this week.  I've been praying to notice the Lord's hand in my life more and have a greater appreciation for it.  The Lord puts us in the right place, at the right time so often.  It's incredible!  I love being a missionary.  I love seeing change, in myself and in others.
 I love you all!  Look for miracles.

-Sister Crystal Gardner

P.S. My ward mission leader (Bro. Horton) and I are really good friends!  We talk to him almost every day.  Sister Nuttall and I are the background on his computer screen :)  Haha so, he said he can't wait to meet my family in 2 years when we take a trip up here!  Also, he said that we are invited to stay with him and Sis. Horton and eat all the fresh raspberries and Saskatoons we could possible want when we go visit.  Be excited, they are delicious. :)

P.S. Guess what? So, we've been working our hineys off... and we have the HIGHEST numbers of ANYONE in our Zone. :) Ok, well the Lord has helped us the entire time. But it's nice to be his little instrument, ya know? Well, I don't want to brag, but I wanted to tell SOMEONE.  I love being a missionary girl. It's quite rewarding and the hard/stressful/frustrating times are worth every second of it.  I really am learning a lot about myself and who I want to become.

August 27, 2013

August 27, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Miracles are happening in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada.  Sorry I couldn't email home yesterday.  Since tomorrow is transfer day for some people, the whole mission has P-day on Tuesday instead of Monday.  No worries, I'm staying in Airdrie!  Thank heavens too.  It is really starting to pick up.  Last week we were able to find 6 new investigators just from street contacting!  It's amazing.  And we were able to have several first lessons this week and we will have several second lessons later in the week. 

Last week we were supposed to meet with an new investigator (Paul) at the library.  He didn't show up.  We saw his 16-year-old friend, Donnovan, at the library and asked him where Paul was.  He didn't know.  So we started talking to him about the gospel.  He was very rude.  He was very disrespectful.  At that moment, I was so grateful for a nice younger brother like John, who would never treat someone like that!  I wanted to leave, but Sister Nuttall and I both felt like we needed to keep talking to this young man.  We were able to talk a little about the gospel.  Then we finally left and on the way out, a man said, "Hey! Are you Mormons?"  We started talking to this man (Loren) and told him about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, the whole thing.  He used to be a Jehovah's Witness but has a grudge against them now, "for what they did to my family".  We gave him a Book of Mormon and we're going to talk with him again this week!  I guess we had to endure talking to the young boy, so that we would be in the right place to talk to Loren.  

On Wednesday, we went on exchanges.  I went to Coventry (right outside of Calgary) with Sister Saegers.  She's 24 years old, 6'5", plays basketball, and neither of her parents are active members.  She's pretty cool and I learned a lot from her!  

On Thursday, we had dinner with a young family that just got sealed in the temple because he got baptized a couple of weeks after they got married.  I'm  meeting some pretty amazing converts here.  Some that sacrificed everything, literally everything, to join the church.  I'm learning what it means to be truly converted to the gospel.  It was pretty neat though.  He talked about "his missionary" and how much he loves that elder and still talks to him.  I can't wait to be "someone's missionary!" -- to have faith, when it's easy, but especially when it's hard.  I'm so glad that Meagan, was courageous enough to join the church, even if it wasn't easy.  I'm so glad she's a member of our family now!  

We visit with a lot of "less-actives" (a lot of them are "inactive") and it's sad what tiny little offenses that they have on the church.  I've been doing a lot of defending.  Sister Nuttall is very Christ-like and likes to be soft and gentle in her approach with people.  But when people wrongly accuse the church, Joseph Smith, God, etc. I'm not quite so gentle.  Maybe I should work on that.... 

On to Karen!  We have visited with her 3 times since the last time I wrote home.  She is progressing nicely.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and we are helping her understand it and we have gotten her to pray with us.  I cannot emphasize enough how hard this was for her and what a big step it was.  I know she feels the Spirit when we visit with her and it's been incredible to see the change.  We have taught her how to recognize the Holy Ghost, but she likes to deny that she "feels any different."  I know she does.  So last night, we talked about repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I invited, "Karen, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God?" She was quiet for a very long time.... "But I don't even know for sure if this is true."  I told her that we've prayed for a date and we know she can be prepared on September 21st to be baptized.  We spent about 30 minutes talking with her, helping her with her concerns, etc. It was pretty amazing.  It wasn't Crystal asking her, it was the Lord.  Sister Nuttall invited her to read and pray and have an answer on Friday when we come teach her again.  So please pray for her.  I know she will get her answer.  I just don't want her to ignore it.

A lot more has happened this week.  My 1st transfer has been amazing!  I can't wait to see what happens this next transfer!

Love you all.  I'm praying for you. Please be safe.  

-Sister Crystal Gardner

August 19, 2013

August 19, 2013

Dearest Family and Friends,

Hello from your favorite missionary girl!  

On Tuesday, we met with Karen.  We had an incredible lesson with her!  We finally got to talk to her about the Restoration!  The Spirit was so strong.  At the end we showed her the video on the first vision.  At the end of the video, it shows Joseph Smith's father entering the waters of baptism.  We've talked with her about baptism before and she's just shakes her head and let us know that she will not get baptized.  But this time, she asked us how a person could get baptized twice (like as a baby and then into our faith) and she said that her deceased husband wasn't baptized and what would happen to him?  We were able to address her concerns and she felt better about the whole thing.  We weren't even planning on asking her about baptism this time but the Spirit had something else in mind.  We followed the Spirit and asked her if she would get baptized when she comes to know that these things are true.  Silence.... To be honest I was waiting for her to say "Definitely not" like she did last time, but then she smiled a little bit.  Then she said slowly, "Maybe........ Probably if I come to find these things are true."  The Spirit was so strong.  But we still have a ways to go, we want to put her on date by the end of the month, but she still won't go to church or pray, but she's reading from the Book of Mormon.  Pray for her! 

When we visited with Ariah she had thrown away ALL of her clothes that weren't temple worthy.  She laughed and said her closet was empty!  She has struggles but her desire to do what is right is stronger. I love her so much.  I can't wait to go to the temple with her in October!  

Speaking of the temple, on Saturday, we got to go!  I love the temple.  I missed not sitting by my beautiful mother or being in the celestial room with my family.  So, I thought of my family a lot in that temple, both my family now and my future family.  I can't imagine trying to raise a family without the gospel.  Luckily, I won't have to.  

We visited with a lot of lonely people this week.  We uplifted a man that thinks only of his wife with Alzheimer and really just needed to talk to someone, we helped a woman water the flowers that she put on her husbands grave, and we talked with a lady who just lost her baby twins.  Sometimes the only things that can help people is the knowledge that Jesus Christ has walked where they have been and can feel their pain.  It is very sad to see that exactly when people need the gospel the most, they shove the Savior out of their life.  It's nice to give them a little bit of light once again!

On Friday, we were at the library doing some online training on stress control... no worries... I'm in the "green zone":) and a man, named Wesley, came into the computer lab.  He saw that we were missionaries and started teasing us (nicely) asking how "the work of saving souls" was going or if he could join the church if he was German and poor, etc.  He told us he's trying to quit smoking and I told him that we have an "addiction recovery" program that could help him!  Anyway, he got on the computer and asked us what he should look up, I told him to type in "mormon.org".  He was on there for thirty minutes and stated being more serious and asking us real questions.  When he went to leave, before I had a chance to say anything he had already written down his contact information and asked us to tell him some more.  I can't wait to teach him!  It just goes to show, that you never know who is ready to hear the gospel.

A while back, we found a man named Justin, he said we could bring by some "literature".  When we went to do so, his wife answered the door and said he wasn't at home and she wasn't interested... when we walked by, we saw him in his back yard.  So yesterday, I decided that we needed to go talk to him again and had the feeling like we should write our testimony in the Book of Mormon and give it to him, however, Sister Nuttall didn't agree.  She didn't feel like we shouldn't visit with him, but she didn't feel like we should either.  I guess my sassiness won, because I felt like we should.  I knocked on the door and Justin answered, he said he didn't have much time to visit because he had to catch a plan, so I introduced the Book of Mormon, told him a little background information, and bore my testimony on it and he said he'd read some of it and that we could come back to see what he thought in a couple of weeks.  Sister Nuttall was silent during the whole thing.  I'm confused how we could get opposite promptings, but I hope I did what was right and I hope that he will read it.  

This week was stake conference and my favorite talk was by the temple president.  It was to "Hear Him". Every time, the Lord introduces the Savior, he says "Hear Him!"  We "hear him" multiple times a day, we just have to pay attention!

I love you family.  I hope you are praying for missionary experiences because they will come! 

Loves,

Sister Crystal Gardner

August 12, 2013

Dearest Family and Friends, 

On Thursday, we had a lesson with Ariah and her friend Jen was there.... I think they both needed the message that we shared on the Savior.  Jen hasn't been active for a while and she's making many poor decisions.  She felt the Spirit so strong that she started crying and said that she felt like she needed to start reading the scriptures again with her children.  I hope she does.  Later, Ariah confided that she has set the goal for herself to go through the temple in OCTOBER.  We were not expecting that... apparently her cousin is going on a mission and so they want to go to the temple together!  If she reaches her goal, I will get to go through with her!  (I will most likely be in this area for 4 transfers.)  

On Friday, we had a "Re-trainer's Meeting" in Calgary.  I got to see all of my MTC friends!  I missed them but it was so nice to see how much they've grown and no longer look like the scared "greenies"! The meeting was nice and my favorite part was learning about our purpose: which is to invite!  I think I took that message to heart....  Later that day, I decided that we were going to INVITE Karen to an 8 year-old's baptism and to church.  She declined both, but at least she knew we were thinking about her and it never hurts to invite!  

On Saturday, we went to the baptism and we didn't know why.  We didn't have an investigator and even though we thought that the non-member side of the family would be there, they didn’t come.  I started to think that maybe we should have done something else instead, but later two 16 year old girls came up to us and said "We really need to talk to you."  They had just gotten back from EFY and were very full of the Spirit (probably just like John was) and they wanted to know about missions, how to decide if they should go, why they should go, etc. etc. I think we did a very good job of addressing their concerns and I told them all the reasons why I love being a missionary, despite the hard times.  I think that is why we needed to be there.  Those girls really needed to talk to us!  

I felt like we really needed to visit Sister Feenstra (the less-active that we help with her yard) later that day.  She is having a hard time because it's been a year since her husband died.  We talked about the plan of salvation and she really felt the Spirit.  I wish she'd come to church.  Apparently there are several people in the ward that are "mean" to her, so she refuses to come.  They probably don't even realize that she feels that way, but she's convinced.  It's sad that she would give up all these blessings, because someone might give her a mean look.  

When we were walking to visit with a less-active, we met a young man (probably about 20) named Marcel, that we talked to.  I don't know if he was really interested, but he invited us to come back!  Later, I decided that we should INVITE him to church.  It was via text, but we were able to talk about what he would feel and experience if he came to church.  He said he would come!  Then we talked to another lady, Marilyn.  She was out gardening and after getting to know her, we mentioned the church.  She said, "Ahhhh yes.  My mom just joined that church."  We INVITED her to come to church and see what her mom does at church!  She asked what we did and we told her.  Then we asked if we could come back and talk to her more. "Uhhh, I'm sure you could."  So hopefully next time we stop by we will be able to talk to her more about her Mom's church and get her interested!  

Sunday we were very excited!  We got to do a presentation in ward council on "Hastening the Work" and getting the members involved.  It went really well!  I really felt the Spirit talking through me at one point and people were crying.  I hope that they took what we said and the challenges we gave them to heart.  We can't do this work alone!  

We were very excited for church because Gordon, Ariah, Marcel, Angela, and Dan all agreed to come to church.  My heart sank because as we sang the opening hymn, not a single one was there.  But slowly, Angela and Dan came. And Ariah. And Gordon!  It was wonderful.  Ariah really enjoyed being back at church and she participated in the lesson!  Both she and Gordon met with the bishop about going through the temple and getting the priesthood! So, everyone except Marcel came (whom we called later and he said he was sleeping... until 11:00?).  He invited us to come teach him this week though, so we won't give up on him.  But we will be having his lesson in a member's home.

Later we visited with Bro. Lah, and his daughter, Sister Phillips, and her husband.  They always uplift me for the next week.  All three are converts and they have the strongest testimonies of anyone I've met.  I guess it just gives me hope that maybe I could bring a convert like that into this church.

I know this church is true!  Pray for missionary opportunities.  The missionaries can't do it alone!

Love,

Sister Gardner