Hermana Garner - Now a Texan!: 5-9-16

Happy late mothers day! I hope all of those mothers I know (especially mine) had an amazing day and were spoiled because you all deserve it! I loved talking to my family...it seemed like I had never left home....I just miss them a lot!

this week was good.....hard but good. we had a lot of interesting experiences that went on my "blessings today" list. it was fun!

"blessings today" experiences:

we were driving to an appointment on Tuesday afternoon. we came up to a stoplight with a lot of cars stopped in front of us. we slowly move forward and I look to the right. there is a car smashed completely in the front and the airbags popped out of the wheel and a lady sitting in her car not moving at all. she was in complete shock. so we pulled over just a little bit, put our car in park and got out of the car. we went up to her and asked her if she was okay and she said yes. she was an older lady. we helped her out of the car and then put the car in neutral and pushed the car all the way up to the parking lot. 2 missionaries pushing this car in skirts almost on the freeway by themselves! what a sight to imagine! haha. we got to the parking lot and she couldn't have been more grateful. the guy that she hit was also in the parking lot. we called 911 and the police came and got her info and stuff. but the whole time we were just holding her. she was shaking so bad and she was so scared. she kissed our cheeks about 7 times when we were leaving...she was so grateful for what we did for her. we will never see her again, we don't even know her name, but she will never forget those Mormon missionaries who helped her that day!

we walked outside one morning at 6:30 to go exercise and we saw a woman pulling boxes out of her car and walking them up to her apartment with her little daughter sitting on the stairs. we asked her if she needed help and she quickly agreed to that. it turns out she was moving in. they had been homeless for 2 months and they finally got an apartment here. she said she has 5 daughters, the oldest one is in law school at Harvard. she said that she has had such a hard life but this apartment was the biggest blessing. she called us angels and she asked if we could pray for her and bless her apartment. she also really wants to walk with us in the morning too! she was super grateful that day.

Maria (she told us this week that her name is actually Rosy now...haha)! our new investigator is awesome! we visited her this week and Hna. Gonzalez (less-active but becoming more active) came with us. we brought Hna. Gonzalez because she lives super close and always tells us that she has nothing to do in the mornings (she is the one that owns the Zumba studio where Megan and her companion teach English lessons). so we brought her! we had the lesson and it went really well. the miracle was this. Hna. Gonzalez and her totally hit it off...aka they are like best friends now. Hna. Gonzalez explained to Rosy that she has felt really alone lately because she doesn't have family/friends here in the USA and she doesn't work during the day. so she is home alone a lot....but that this was an answer to her prayers that she found Rosy as a friend! they are planning to get together by themselves and teach other their talents! (sewing, cooking, etc.) so amazing! it is the best thing as missionaries to find a perfect fellowshipper for your investigator. it makes me so happy! keep Rosy in your prayers!

Rosa (the viejita from El Salvador that is always in my pictures – the older lady who cooks for them but they are a little nervous to eat it. She’s the one who told Megan that she didn’t like her nail polish but loved her hair. LOL!) came to church for the first time in 3 years yesterday! MIRACLE! we visited her this week and it was awesome. she showed us her pet turtle that she got and when she took it out of the cage thing she was like "hola marta!" she named her pet turtle Marta. how cute is that? but we taught her and I kind of guilt tripped her in coming to church because it was my birthday. she always said she would come (for the last 3 years she’s been saying that!) but because she has so many sicknesses in her body and problems, she has never been able to come. but yesterday I was sitting in Relief Society and I look and there she is, walking in. I hugged her and she whispered in my ear "vine" which means "I came!" she was so happy. after church, I asked her how she felt physically and she said she felt a lot better and followed with "primeramente Dios (God willing or God first)!" hope she keeps on coming! everybody was super glad to see her too! I got a lot of high fives for getting her there, but I know it was Heavenly Father who truly pushed her.

one of my favorite parts of this week was on Saturday. we had a party at church for Mothers Day and all of the men put it together! it was great. they escorted all of the ladies into the gym, took their food order and sat them down. they got a Mariachi Band to come as a surprise and I LOOOVED every minute of it. the branch danced and ate and laughed together that night and it was the best. watching the people I love dancing and being happy to be alive is my favorite thing in the world. a coming back less-active went. she teaches zumba. a song came on that she has a routine to so she got up and started doing the routine and everybody got behind her and started doing it with her. it was so cool to sing. it was Oscar's birthday that day so I told the Mariachi to sing him happy birthday so they did! after that Oscar told them that it was my birthday the next day so they sang to me and a little guy from the band held my hand and serenaded me.....I want to be Hispanic! they just love life and they know how to dance SOOO GOOD. one day I will dance like them. they are my people and I love them.

this week we didn't have a lot of lessons or a lot of investigators answer us, but we planted a lot of seeds in different ways and we saw a lot of little miracles. I love this work and I'm so lucky I get to be a part of it! thank you for all the birthday letters/packages/emails! I feel so loved! love all of you!

Hermana Garner