Hermana Garner - Now a Texan!: 5/31/16

helllooooo family and friends! hope this week was BUENISIMA!

so my companion, Hermana Hughes is amazing! She is from Mapleton, UT and she has been here for only 8 weeks. I love her to death. We get along suuuuuper well. We have so much in common - from going home from our mission and coming back to having the same favorite food as Chicken Alfredo. it is awesome. we work really hard and well together. I am so grateful for her! my lil baby is training ME! she is such a good example for me. i love her a lot.

right before transfers, our teaching pool was pequenito. very small. we had hardly anyone so I was a little nervous to bring in a trainee and show her what we are doing. she came from a super strong Hispanic Ward up in Sugarland where everyone had callings and there was no drama at all.....definitely not Kemah! I love Kemah more than anything, but it definitely has its struggles. I was nervous for her to come into that, but it was fine. The day after transfers, her first day, a miracle happened. I dont know if you remember our old investigator, Yosdel, but we found her and her family again. They basically fell off the face of the Earth and moved so we didnt see them for a while. We were in their complex the other day talking to people and I felt like we needed to knock on their door and just see what happens. So we walked there, knocked on the door and Yosel answered and gave us a huge hug! we went in and her 2 daughters were SO excited to see us. they told us that they had moved back but didnt have our number. they said they had been thinking about us this whole time and wondering if we were ever going to come back. and we did! we taught them something out of the Book of Mormon that day and have an appointment with them this week. they have a lot of potential and we are so excited we found them. such a miracle!

A lot of people have been wondering if I am drowning/swimming down here in Texas because of the flooding. There has been a TON of rain here but no flooding where I am at. thank goodness! there was a day where we were planning on contacting a lot of people in an apartment complex and when we got there it started pouring and were walking in the parking lot with water up to our ankles. it was fun and cold. the sun has been coming out though recently and it is the best! we love exercising in the morning while the sun rises. it makes me happy and ready for the day.

la familia Vidana. there is a man in our branch who lives by the Peraltas who has a wife and little baby. the wife isnt a member and he is inactive. but I am determined this transfer to teach her! so we have been trying to visit them for a while but they havent been home. when people arent home, we leave a little pass-along card in their door just to let them know we were there and thinking of them. one night we went, they werent home, we left a pass-along card. the night after we were visiting the Peraltas and we saw them outside getting out of the car so we just said hi and waved. we sent a text that same night to him saying that he is always invited to church. the next day he asked if we could see him and his wife for an appointment! we went and they werent home. sadly. but he came to church! the first time in a year!!!!!!!!! Pres. Allred said he met with him after church and he said that Hermano Vidana wants to come back to church, he felt like the pass-along card was a sign for that. so things are looking up with him and hopefully we can start teaching his wife soon!

speaking of church, Rosa came again! (the old lady) she brought a friend too! her second time in 3 years to church and she brought a friend. in the middle of sacrament she was telling her friend what was happening. but it was so loud that i could hear it up on the stand when she was in the back of the room. so funny. i love old people and always will.

we have a new part of our area! not officially but we talked with Pres. Allred and he gave us permission from Pres. Hall to go and teach down there. It is almost to Galveston – it’s an island called Tiki Island and it is so cute and beachy. Yesterday we went down there to go explore and it was so fun! we are planning on going there on a Saturday and just biking the whole thing. we are excited. it feels like we are in Hawaii!

The Garcias are leaving this Thursday to go back to Austin:( I got to sit by her in Sunday School while she played with my hair. sure love her a lot. we are going to get ice cream with them tomorrow to send them off again! I will miss them a lot!!!

this week I am studying the Atonement a lot. we had a cool experience that Hna. Gonzalez (less-active but reactivating) shared with us. She explained that a lot of Hispanics come from their countries, leave their families, their jobs, their everything, to have a better life here and for their kids to have a better life here too. she says it is hard when her kids don’t do well in school or when they arent making good decisions because we think "We left for nothing?" or "why is this happening?" things like that. She related it to the Atonement and how if we don’t repent, the Atonement was for nothing. If we dont turn to the Savior like we should every single day, the Atonement was for nothing. It was super powerful and I decided to study the Atonement more this week because it can be really complicated but the simplicity of it is perfect. I love my Brother, Jesus Christ and what He did for me. I am thankful for it everyday, good days or bad.

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Garner