When in Doubt... Cast a Devil Out!

I'm feelin' all grown up! I'm not sure if it's 2021 vibes or the fact that I just took in my suits to get dry cleaned without the assistance of my mom. BIG DEAL for me!

But let me tell you a super cool story that happened this past week. YOU DON'T WANT TO SKIP OVER IT...Brazil taught me a lot of things...but I never thought I would need to use my "expulsion devils" knowledge out here in Virginia:

My companion and I were out of the house doing a COVID safe service project and towards the end of our shift we got a few calls from a frantic member in our ward. We were super confused as she mumbled out these half phrases with breaths in between and we finally understood that someone in her sister's hair salon had a demon attached to her. We were skeptical but wanted to help so we called this lady and she was crying and nervous and it was a crazy phone call. It didn't help that they were in a salon by themselves and the Hair Lady was freaking out and screaming.

To make a long story short, we prayed over the phone with her and then set up to meet with her at the church to give her a blessing and figure out a remedy for her situation. We left the service a little early, got on our proselytizing clothes, and scooted on over to the church.

There, we saw this hair dresser with a perfectly normal lady that looked super tired. As we sat down and talked to her, she started listing off the craziest experiences she has had over the past few weeks. She explained how she has had some supernatural occurrences with objects moving in her house without anyone touching them, she's had headaches and heavy nightmares, and as someone who is normally super upbeat and happy she has had suicidal thoughts. As she described other things relating to how this whole situation started and some other details I remember just looking at her and feeling the greatest feeling of peace. I KNEW at that moment that God loved her. I was completely relaxed and felt so powerful as I felt the priesthood pulse through my veins. I knew that God wanted to bless her based on her faith.

My companion and I talked about the priesthood mentioned in Matthew 10:1 that says,  "And when he had ^acalled unto him his ^btwelve disciples, he gave them ^cpower against ^dunclean spirits, to cast them out, and to ^eheal all manner of ^fsickness and all manner of disease."

We then laid our hands on her head and gave her a blessing. It was amazing the power and spirit that was in that room. We were able to cast the devil out in her life through the priesthood AND her faith. It was incredible because just moments after the prayer the heavy dark bags under her eyes returned to normal. She felt at peace. And of course, we gave her the Book of Mormon to read everyday in 3 Nephi where Christ came to those in the Americas and dispelled the darkness that they were surrounded in.

It was an amazing experience and to this day this lady says how she feels back to normal now and was so grateful. We are hoping to start teaching her now. It was an amazing opportunity to see God's priesthood in action.

Love you all!

Elder Gardanier

 

Patience Purifies

 So I'm mega confused as I'm scratching my head right now because my pday felt like it was literally yesterday. I think this was the fastest week of my whole mission! I'm not sure why. Either because it wasn't like I was extra busy, but I guess I just love the new year and setting more goals! I thought that I was all "goaled" out because as missionaries we set SOOOO MANY GOALS. But I have honestly drawn a lot of strength, direction, and purpose for myself as I took the time to ask Heavenly Father what he wants of me for 2021. It was amazing to see how revelation from him came line upon line and he helped me create a few plans to accomplish the vision that He has given me too. I invite all of you to consider making a firm goal that helps you accomplish something and become something for 2021!!

This week entailed studying A LOT about patience and I am realizing that I am NOT a very patient person. I'm the type of person who eats all of the cookie dough before it even gets in the oven because I just can't contain myself ;);) But I ran across Elder Uchtdorfs talk called "Continue in Patience" and he had some really good one-liners that delineated patience a little better for me. Here they are:

"If I applied myself consistently, I could learn. It didn't come quickly, but with patience, it did come."

and catch this one...it is super cool:

"Patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace."

HOW COOL, right? Some of us wait a few years to appreciate something even greater. And all of us are having to wait a lifetime AND MORE to fully appreciate the gift it is to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father. What a gift that will be and patience is definitely polishing us.

And to end things here is an amazing story of patience from this lady named Bea. We had our second video lesson with her this week and we shared the message of the Restoration. We taught super simply and even would review and see what she understood but we weren't sure how much actually stuck. But we have been trying to get better at promising her blessings and applying these special messages to her unique circumstance...Well to give some quick background of her--she is living in a trailer park in a trailer that is falling apart. Her and her husband just recently got married and they have so much credit card and other types of debt. Their hot water doesn't work and everything has been going south. We called them to pray with them and it's amazing to see after all these years of suffering, God is putting their lives back together. When we pulled her situation into the light of the restored gospel and how it will provide her more peace and shelter even when the world can't she broke down into tears. It was such a tender moment. We asked how she was feeling and she said "I'm happy." When we asked her where she thinks that those feelings come from she responded "It's God."

What a sweet spirit and what a testament of how patience can refine us, it can help us deepen our appreciation for the Savior, and in Bea's case, it helped her truly appreciate the gift of peace and God's love.

I love you all and make sure to set those new years goals! Write them down!

Elder Gardanier

For their Christmas Eve Zoom call, they acted out the Navitity

5 Bags of Groceries and a Handful of Miracles

 To be honest, I was worried about the days leading up to Christmas because there is a common theme with everyone...they are busy. they have plans. they don't have time to meet.

However, God managed to help us stay not only productive but efficient in our work eventually leading to some HUGE miracles.

To set the scene for this amazing Christmas miracle, I first have to acknowledge the incredible ward here. We have plates, and dishes, and boxes full of food and treats. There is a bite taken out of everything just so I could taste it all! However, we physically could not eat all this food...that's how blessed we are! So, rather than feeding it to the dumpster at the end of the week, we posted an ad on facebook marketplace for free bags of groceries. Of course, faithless me didn't expect much from it since most of my ads don't produce much of an effect...but BOY were we wrong. 

Within the first day, we had over 25 responses of people begging for food. My poor tender heart was shattered with every text I received of families losing jobs and not being able to buy food, or homes being burned and they had nothing, or people who are at rock bottom during one of the happiest times of years. My world turned upside (again) that people are honestly suffering. It broke my heart. We tried to give as much food away and even have more missionaries help us out or even drop off a few Christmas cards to spread some holiday cheer. We had about 3 referrals we gave out to missionaries and even a HUGE miracle in my area:

For those weekly readers of the "Elder Gardanier Newsletter," you all probably know that in my current area, finding people to teach is A STRUGGLE. Well this week was no exception. In fact, we were burdened down and "ready to turn back" after getting ghosted by Makayla and Christina who were supposed to be baptized the 26th. Well, after our facebook ad went rampage, we received a response from a lady (Jamie) who lives in our ward boundaries. She just asked for any food. My companion and I were dry with all of the donations we received but we had received some holiday cash from an AMAZING lady back in Highland, Utah. We ran to the store and bought this family some groceries and sprinted over to their house.

We pulled up and got a Book of Mormon ready and we saw this family come out onto their porch one-by-one. The family consisted of Jamie and Scott and then their 4 little kids all under the age of 9. I DIED. THEY WERE SO CUTE. They were all SO grateful. The mom got super emotional and all we heard were thanks. The dad was asking us about our church and even asked for a passalong card with the info to the church. We finished up by taking a few pictures...I honestly wanted to stay there for hours!!!

Well get this...not even an hour later, we saw on Facebook that this lady had posted those photos thanking us publicly, she even changed her profile picture to the one that we took, AND she posted a picture of the Book of Mormon. 

My companion and I are honestly in awe still. It's cool to see how "man's extremity is God's opportunity." We were stretched trying to find people and finally, something worked even during one of the most busy times of the year! The best part is this miracle is one of MANY this past week. We are so grateful for the Hall family and just as the Zoramites in the Book of Mormon were humbled, we know that the Hall family agrees that "their afflictions had truly humbled them, and that they were in a preparation to hear the word."

Merry Christmas! Feliz Natal! Feliz Navidad! Joyeaux Noel!!!

-Elder Gardanier

Ps, today I hit 18 months a missionary and what better way to celebrate than Christmas and pickleball with my district . I cant believe I'm hitting the home stretch