October 21, 2013

Familia! 

I only have a little time, but so many great things happened this week. Don't judge me if I have spelling or punctuation errors. I have no time to proofread. 

So, DALLIN H OAKS CAME!! It was great. He said so many great things. Maybe I'll write some in a letter, but I just wanted to share a few with you right now. The Fort Lauderdale Temple will be dedicated early next year, so he talked a lot about that. One thing that he said that I really liked was: "The temple is not a monument to our faith, but a symbol of our increased commitment and work. The Lord does not build a temple to have it stand empty." I thought that was really interesting. We've got work to do. He also said, "We don't get a testimony of the Gospel by being indifferent to whether the Gospel is true or not." I've just been learning a lot about faith and how we don't really have it until we do something about it. It's the same with a testimony. We won't get it unless we do something to deserve it. Lastly, he said, "If there are things that you don't understand, trust in the Lord. Be faithful, and pray for strength." So true. So good. 

We had an awesome experience this week out knocking doors. We are really trying to be where the Lord wants us to, so the night before we were choosing a place to knock doors. I felt prompted to go back to a place that my previous companion and I had knocked just a while ago.So, we went there and started knocking. We wanted to get 5 blessings that day. We had knocked for quite a bit and had gotten 4. It was getting dark, so I said we probably should get going to another appointment. Sister Meiling said let's knock just one more. We chose a door and it was the right one. We blessed them, and they loved it! They said they went to another church and prayed for help. The husband said, "This must be our answer." It was so awesome. We were led completely by the Spirit to them, and we had no idea. I think that may have been when I have felt the Spirit the strongest on my mission. Every choice we had made that day led us to that door. It was loco-crazy. I loved it. I may have clicked my heels on the way back to the car. 

I love you guys a lot. I hope things are going well. 

Hermana Gardner

P.S. I don't have time for more than one picture today. This is the sweetest Colombian lady. I have no idea why she is touching me the way she is HAHA! Latins are funny.