2/20/17 - Temple happiness

HOLA! how are we? hope this week was a good week for all! it was an amazing one for us.

Hope Valentine's Day was good for everyone...it was probably our most successful day! We saw all of our investigators, Anita, Irma & Clarissa and Jose! And different members came with us to all of them! 

ANITA! She is doing really well. She is struggling a little bit with her husband right now because he doesnt support her in learning about the gospel...which makes it hard. But we read the Book of Mormon with her and she loved it. We read in 3 Nephi 18 and she was crying through it because it applied to what she was going through. She has a new love for the Book of Mormon!

IRMA&CLARISSA! We saw them this week with an awesome member, Hna. Brodrick, my idol! She is amazing and her and Clarissa clicked super well and they are going to do playdates with their kids soon together too. We read 1 Nephi together with them and they completely understood and loved what they read. They were super thankful for our visit, we are still hoping to teach them all together as a family! They really need it. pray for them!

JOSE! oh man, he is doing AWESOME. he is is doing really good physically which makes everything easier. we saw him this week with a member he hasn't met before which was super good. the member was super sick for a while so him and Jose really related. it was good, he needed it. on thursday we went to see him without a member and of course his wife wasnt there that one night so we couldnt go in. so we stood outside and he sat inside and we just talked about his life for like 2 hours. he told us all about his life in Mexico, how he danced and was so healthy. He told us how he met his wife, how they got married, how their kids grew up, everything. it was so fun. we laughed so hard with him, we didnt teach anything. we just talked and got to know him better and it was the best. moments like that just make me the happiest. we are going to President Hall's house for an FHE tomorrow night with awesome members and then President Solis wants to do an FHE with them on Thursday and hopefully he will be able to be BAPTIZED on saturday!! please keep him in your prayers!! By the way, he said the closing prayer in Gospel Principles yesterday and he did awesome. We are so proud of him! 

FAM. DIAZ! We went with the Primary President to teach them and it was awesome! they are a little nervous with their kids going to different classes, but we think she really helped them understand why we go different places at church. and guess what? they came to church yesterday!!!! I think they felt really good and loved there. 

we found a new investigator, her name is Frances! Hermana Solis had been telling us that she has been praying for one of her neighbors to accept the gospel. so she finally got the courage to ask her and she made an appointment! so we went and met her! Frances is a cute little mom with a 6-year-old daughter, just them. She knows this could really help her and her little daughter. We are excited to start teaching them! 

I had the most amazing day on Saturday, I got to go to the temple with Oscar, my convert from Kemah! When I saw him for the first time that day, I waved and he was walking away but looked at the perfect moment and had the biggest smile and put his fist in the air. It was the most magical day. I remember sitting in the temple right next to both, Oscar and his wife. I wanted to word throw up on them, "How have you been? How do you feel? how was it?" everything like that...but we just sat in silence. Oscar prayed to himself for a long time, which made me really happy. I forgot that a ton of Kemah people would be there, so it was good to catch up with everyone. They all thought I finished so some hermanos hugged me...haha. I love all of them and it was so good to see everyone! 

it was an amazing week, seeing some of my favorite people! Saturday was one of the best days of my life, unforgettable. I have never had so much love for these people in my life! I guess that is what the mission does to ya. So many people here have been asking me about how I feel about ending my mission soon. The only thing I say is that is has been the hardest 1.5 years of my life, but the most rewarding as well. I wouldn't change it for anything in the world!

love you all!

Hermana Garner

happiness!!!!

Hna Peralta (Oscar’s wife!!!)

my fav person – Oscar!!!

the Kemah crew (all people from her first area)

2/13/17 - Mama Solis

hello!!! happy almost valentine's day! in spanish it is "Day of friendship and love" so you can go be with your friends that day if the "love" part doesn't apply :)

this week was probably the fastest week of my mission...it FLEW! we did 31 hours of service, that could be one of the reasons.

JOSE!!! what a guy. we started off the week by going to his house to give him another blessing with the elders and a guy in the branch. lately, his health hasn't been the best. he wasnt able to go to the Family Night at Pres. Hall's house because he was actually bleeding in his stomach because he had ulcers. so that landed him in the hospital for about 3 days. pobrecito! we went and sang to him with the ukulele with Hna. Solis and he said he wanted us to sing at his funeral. saddest thing ever, but we told him it wouldn't be for a while so he doesn't have to think about it yet. so he left the hospital on saturday and we called him to see how he was doing and he said "see you at church tomorrow".

IRMA & CLARISSA! we have grown to love them a lot more this week. we asked them if we could help them with anything this week and they said they were thinking about painting one of their bathrooms! so we went over on tuesday at 5 and painted an entire bathroom and left around 9:30! they were so so grateful. but the thing that made me the happiest was this. we were outside washing some paintbrushes out with clarissa (daughter). she was telling us how her dad just came back and brought back all of his things, her mom is happier, the kids are behaving more and her house just feels better. she said it all started when we started coming over. she said "hmmmm. there has to be something good about you two" and we explained that it wasn't us, it was the Spirit and how we are so excited to be on this journey with them to having a happier family. right before we were about to leave, we said goodbye and Clarissa says "wait, could we say a prayer?" of course!!!! so she said the prayer and her mom cried again during it. she loves seeing her daughter pray, it is the sweetest thing! we have an appointment on Tuesday because they want to read the Book of Mormon with us to get them started and we already have an awesome member coming!

on Wednesday, we had an awesome and tiring day! we had a zone conference all day long and then another meeting that night, so we were in Sugarland all day long. but the conference was amazing! Elder Zwick is an amazing teacher and it really grew my testimony as I learned. I shared my testimony because it was my last zone conference, and I got really teary-eyed talking about how specific God’s plan is for us. During the conference, Elder Zwick told a story about how missions get assigned and things like that. He said that Pres. Eyring was in the room trying to assign missionaries to their mission for the first time and it was really hard for him. He said that a missionary came up on the screen and he said "I imagine him walking the streets of Mexico City" so he got assigned to the Mexico City North Mission. So I got up to give my testimony and I said that I was originally assigned to Mexico City and I went and loved it for my short time there. But then the Lord needed me here in Texas and I loved my time here as well. After the meeting, Elder Zwick came up to me and said "That really touched me. Thank you so much for sharing your strong testimony. I am so glad you are here in Texas and the Lord is too"

that day, I also saw Hna. McAdams and it was so good! she is doing well and it was fun to see her see all of our members that night at the ward counsel meeting. 

LA FAMILIA DIAZ! I don't know if I talked about Araceli last week, but we are starting to teach the cutest family ever! They are from Mexico and have 3 kids, Jesus (12), Giselle (8) and Giovanni (7). Araceli and Fidel are the parents and they are super interested in the church! we taught them this week and they accepted to be baptized!! they didn't commit to a date yet but we are super excited to start teaching them! I love families!

on saturday, we went to Tomasa's house to visit her again and her boyfriend let us in and we taught them a little bit together! #MIRACLE when we were teaching Tomasa at first, her boyfriend didn't even let us in but on Saturday he welcomed us in happily and we shared a scripture about the Plan of Salvation! it was awesome! 

yesterday was just a huge miracle. Amazingly, Jose came to church after being in the hospital a good part of the week, he just loves to learn! Hna. Solis is the sunday school teacher and she is amazing. she makes things so personal when she teaches. yesterday, the class was on the Holy Ghost, something Jose is still wanting to feel and talks about it with everyone. she was talking about the feelings when we get when we feel the Holy Ghost and Jose raises his hand and says "That is what I want to feel" he is so humble. Hna. Solis gave one of the most powerful testimonies of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit was so strong! She made it so personal to Jose and basically just taught Jose the whole rest of the time, it was amazing. He really needed that. He had a really good sunday at church, all of the members always visit with him after and I think he feels really loved. He is getting so close to baptism! We are going to talk about it with him on Tuesday! 

I just really never want to leave these people. One day in the hospital with Jose, I was just looking at him and realizing how much love I have grown for him. I want these blessings of the gospel for him so bad and everyone else we are teaching! I told him that and he said he wants those blessings too. After we finished, we were walking out and I looked at him and said "you can do this" and gave him knuckles and walked out of the hospital room. he is like my dad sometimes and I couldn't be more grateful for the people I have met here!

Hna. Solis was also a huge part of our week, we helped with a lot of things and she helped us yesterday A TON with Jose. last night we were at Presidente's house because we needed some info for a member and she just slipped her arm around my waist and laid her head on my shoulder and said "dont go" there are a lot of tears in my future!

thank you so much for everything! love you all!

Hermana Garner

Sister Hall and I! love her!

my momma here.

grandma regalado. not a good quality picture, but it describes what happens when we are together.

we met Hna. Regalado's granddaughter at the meeting we had!