Hermana Garner - Now a Texan!: 1/16/17

hello friends and family! hope this week was good! it was an awesome one for us! we were running around like crazy we hardly ate.

lets go day by day....

Monday, we went to Brazos Bend State Park! It is like a nature park in our area in the middle of nowhere with alligators just chillin on the side of all the lakes! we were all looking at one and all of a sudden, our district leader grabbed its tail and pulled it (SO DUMB) and the alligator ran into the water while all of the sisters AND ELDERS screamed so loud. it was a fun adventure! Later that night we called to make sure our FHE was still good with the Ovalle family and Karen (the daughter) was on the phone crying and said that they got kicked out of their house and they have to move in the next 2 days. so we went to walmart, bought some boxes and tape, and went over there and helped them for the rest of the night. we helped them pretty much all week long!

on Tuesday we went to see Jose really quick and set some goals. we are so much more comfortable with him now, I love it! it feels like I am just talking to my dad! I am teaching my dad! he told us that the day before, on Monday he had dialysis and he usually goes home and sleeps because he feels exhausted, but instead of sleeping he went fishing! He said he hasn't gone fishing in forever, but he went and it felt great. he gave some fish to hermana regalado to cook and we had it for dinner on Saturday at her house.

Wednesday, we had exchanges! I went downtown with our Sister training leader and Hna. McAdams took over the area! she did awesome! she was with her old MTC companion so she was super nervous that they wouldn't know what to do because of their spanish, but they rocked it! they taught a less-active and tracked a whole street and taught 8 lessons from it! so proud of my mija! downtown, it was super different and SO loud and so many apartment complexes, super different. but it was fun to be somewhere different for a day.

Thursday we had zone conference and interviews! zone conference was amazing and the theme was "BECOMING.” we don't just do the right things, we become something. we become the person that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. it was amazing! also interviews were good, President promised that I would finish my mission here and he really talked about "sprinting to the end" as in keeping my head down for 8 more weeks!

Friday, we helped the Ovalle family a lot and we saw KAYLA!! finally! she said she has had a lot of homework recently and super busy but we finally saw her and it was great. she is doing awesome and her mom too. they didn't come to church on sunday, but we are seeing them tonight and hopefully going to take kayla out to find more people with us! we are so excited!

Saturday was CRAZY. we were signed up to help clean the church with Hna. Mederos and Hna. Ovalle. We were expecting to not have hna. Ovalle because she was moving and everything but she came and was ready to clean! favorite lady! we cleaned in the morning, and then went and helped Hna. Aguilar take her tree down. we ended up being over there for a while because she said she was having a friend over for lunch. I cleaned her whole kitchen and dishes without her knowing because Hna. McAdams was doing her makeup. We got there (she is blind) and her dark eyeshadow was everywhere...we needed to help her! so we did and she looooooved it. we helped her make brownies and set the table. she said she really enjoyed the company and the help. we love her!

after that, we went over to Hna. Regalado's house for dinner! yum! after that we went to the Ovalle's house to finish up the move. everyone from the branch was there, helping! it was amazing! Presidente (branch president) was a machine! elders, and about 5 more families were there helping this cute, humble Ovalle family. after everything was clean and loaded into the truck and taken to houses and storage, we all gathered together and Hna. Ovalle just started crying. she said that she was so thankful for all the help with the move, meals, support, everything. Presidente was hugging her so tight from the side, and I started to tear up and everyone else too. Their family is going through so much, I can't even imagine. she said that she knows she has to keep on coming to church and reading her scriptures when times get rough because it is the only way she will get the help that she needs. it was a powerful moment when I realized that the simple things really matter.

after that, we were on our way home exhausted from the day, when Jose called us and wanted to know if we were coming over...totally unplanned. So we put some church clothes and went over! we got there and there was a cute young couple there too. they are friends of Jose. we taught about the Spirit to Jose and his friends and read from the Book of Mormon. They all had so many questions and were super interested. Jose was basically our member present! he was telling them what the Book of Mormon was and everything, it was so good. we invited them to church and THEY ALL CAME!

on Sunday Jose, and the couple (Brenda and Edgar) all came to church together. they participated in all the classes and had amazing questions! I was sitting on the stand and Edgar was crying at one point during the Sacrament. After church, we had a little church tour with all of them, including Jose. After the tour, we stopped at the baptismal font, opened it up, talked about baptism and recommitted Jose to baptism on Feb. 4. We invited them to pray about what they heard and about baptism as well. yay for Brenda and Edgar! we are so happy to start teaching them!

sometimes as a companionship, we get discouraged if we don't have a lot of lessons or good numbers. WRONG! we have realized this week that it isn't about that at all and that if we are doing what the Lord would have us do the blessings will come. we served soooo much this week and a lot of it was unplanned and that is the best kind sometimes. some days we just spend in service and kind of feel bad because we didn't teach anyone that day. but we receive the blessings anyway because we are still helping the Lord's children no matter what! it was amazing this week to serve these people and to see our branch come together and help each other. someone in the stake came and spoke in our branch yesterday and they said they love branches because they are focused on the most simple and important things. it is so true! its why I never wanna leave.

love you all! have an amazing week!

Hermana Garner