Confederate Territory

AHHH Richmond is so cool. This pday we went to the American Civil War museum that was finished in September 2020...SOOOO the coolest things were there. It was amazing to be reading about the Civil war while standing on its home turf. INSANE, history is so cool! Richmond is also super cool because it means helping families like the Halls. Remember this family from WAY before Christmas? Well, we have been trying to get in contact with them to teach them a lesson or even get them to church after we dropped off some groceries forever ago, BUT they went MIA. It was super sad. However, all missionaries just need a member by the name of Wendie Webb. For the past 2 1/2 months she has brought treats over to the Halls every other week. At first, the Halls thought it was strange and laughed a little. Then, Wendie was there when the Halls were going through some DIFFICULT times. The husband Scott has COPD now (which means no more drinking and smoking hehe). Wendie was also there for their sons birthday party and even made treats for it and got invited. Long story short, we FINALLY were able to teach this amazing family in-person. The grandeur of this moment had me thinking that angelic chorus' would descend from Heaven as we testified of the Restoration. But nope. We had Tonka trucks and electric kid cars hitting every wall and bump and making the LOUDEST noises during the lesson. I just prayed and prayed that all would go quiet. But nope. Then. Right as we started reciting the First vision, everything went SILENT. It was a powerful moment. We continued to talk about the amazing opportunities that The Church brings, and Sister Webb taught with us hand-in-hand as well! The Halls were asking, "Why are there so many churches when there is just one Bible?" or even, "Does the 'Mormon' church baptize? Because my family hasn't been baptized yet." WHAT?! So good things are coming. Which is funny because we are nearing the end of the transfer and I might get transferred so what a coincidence. 😐 Take care this week! Love y'all! And happy Valentines day! Check out the funniest Valentine's gifts my mom sent to me to give my entire zone hahahahaha. She's a gem -Elder Gardanier

"Lying on the cold hard ground." Squirrel edition

I'm not even sure where to begin. It's the littlest things while still in quarantine...going on month 10...that make each day a little different and fun.

This member asked us if we could doorbell ditch a birthday present from the Relief Society to an inactive member. We gladly accepted because we love to serve in any way that we can! We drove over to this members house to pick up this present but they also gave us some red solo cups full of a vegetable stew and SQUIRREL. They had shot these squirrels down with their pellet guns just hours before. I felt bad for eating Chip and Dale but hey, the squirrel wasn't too bad...you just had to spit out a bone or two every bite haha. THEN. We drove over to this other ladies house with the birthday present in hand. I parked and ran up to the front door to drop off the package. Well, for those following Virginia weather, we had a snow storm that shoooook the entire state. As I ran up to the porch I saw a patch of ice and was like "Good thing I'm from Utah and know how to deal with ice because I'm sure someone could get really hurt not seeing that ice." I put the present down and touched the doorbell. LITERAL seconds later--before I could even untouch the doorbell--someone on the other side of the door was trying to unlock the door all frantically and open the door. That scared me so much for some reason so I went into "fight or flight mode." I leaped off the steps and started sprinting to the car without even realizing the patch of ice. The next thing I knew I was on my back literally "lying on the cold hard ground" squirming like the dead squirrel I had just eaten. To make it worse, the door finally swung open to reveal a dad and his kids all jump out of the house to see innocent Elder Gardanier chillen on my back on their front porch. I was so embarrassed and was laughing SO HARD. I sprinted off laughing so hard that I think the Dad thought I was crying as I sprinted away bahahaha. Can you imagine being him? Opening your door to a missionary lying on his back on your porch who had just ditched a present from the Relief Society. Yes. T'was a confusing experience. To end things on a good note though, Bea Quicke is progressing SO well. Sadly, she couldn't come to church because all churches were canceled this Sunday due to 3 inches of snow. No joke. However, during the week we had a call set up with her at 7pm but she couldn't resist video chatting with us earlier that day just so we could meet her mom who Bea is wanting for us to start sharing our messages. Bea gets emotional every time she mentions how we have helped her so much during her time of need and hurt. What an amazing experience. I am sad that we are going to need to pass her off to some Elders in the next zone over but it's been an AMAZING experience with Bea. What went from a bag of free food on Facebook Marketplace given to us from a member family which has now turned into teaching her and hopefully a baptism and confirmation soon!

Remember to take your Vitamins--I definitely recommend the chewy gummies over the pills ughhh. That was a rookie mistake on my part. Elder Gardanier

uhh... "Will you be baptized?"

I was blown away by the following miracle this week so just keep reading: My companion and I made a bucket list for the remaining 5 months of my mission (CRAZY!). One of the items we put on there was to have a GNARLY grill. We want to go ALL out. We have such a good grill at the apartment complex we are at and are excited for how it will turn out...BUT I guess God hears my prayers (I don't guess, he knows). Because we went to volunteer this past week to give out groceries to families in the area and the main volunteer lady stopped us all for a quick announcement and something like this..."Thank you all for coming out tonight! We love our volunteers. Infact, we got this GIANT donation of grilling tools, scrubbers, etc from this company that we don't know what to do with. We want these boxes of grilling equipment gone by tonight." WHAT. (^I sweat that is my reaction ever single week haha). We literally came away from that volunteer project with at least $50 in grilling equipment! We are just poor and need to buy meat but other than that, we are going to have the grooviest lip-smacking grill around. (pictures to come;) But on a more serious note, we had another huge miracle this week! We had planned in our daily planning to call through some of the people who had previously canceled lessons with us and we had gotten back into contact with them. The time came to start that activity so we prayed to start off, and then we went to the first canceled appointment that we could find. We called Latesha and introduced ourselves as the missionaries who had previously called but to our dismay it wasn't Latesha. She was actually gone. But as we were going to hang up the lady on the other side of the phone goes "I would like to hear a message though." 1. That never happens. We consented and began to talk about the Book of Mormon and her interest in religion in the past, etc. She said that for the past 3 years she has been searching for something more. She has an aunt and uncle who are "Mormons" and she never even considered looking into it more. 2. By this point my companion and I are dying. As we continued listening to her she explained that she wants more peace. She feels like she has been missing something in her life that she wants answers for. She has felt distant from God. She even said "I'll be baptized again if I need to." 3. By THIS point little Elder Gardanier was so frazzled because I didn't know what scripture to share because she asked basically EVERY QUESTION OF THE SOUL. Therefore, we did the next logical thing. We testified of the truthfulness of this church and of Christ's gospel accessed through Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. To her surprise, we then invited Tatiana to be baptized on February 20th and she said "That is something that I will definitely consider and pray about." We left this lesson just exploding because Tatiana finally found the truth! We figured out that she actually doesn't live in our area BUT she lives in a nearby ward so that will be exciting to see her being taught by an amazing set of Sisters! That is all I got to report on this week! Go eat some brussel sprouts <3 Elder Gardanier

"Hi, this is Autsin."

Just like every rose...this week had it's thorns. HOWEVER, we ended on a HIGH note! But let me explain a fun little moment I had that left me red as a tomato for a solid half hour: We recently were given another area to cover which is an hour away...Buckingham. We have been reaching out to all of the leadership there to introduce ourselves, etc. We are also teaching a guy named Anthony who I'll explain a little further down in this email. But we were in need of a member to be on a call with him to start fellowshipping Anothony and getting him friends in the church. We were waiting for the Buckingham Branch's Ward Mission Leader named Austin Knight (important detail) to call us with a member suggestion. Additionally, we were waiting on a member to call us for our dinner that they were bringing that night. During a lesson we missed a call so we called it back and there is a man on the other end that goes "This is Austin." CLEARLY I thought to myself "This is Austin Knight...the ward mission leader." I then went OFF and told this Austin for 5 mins about the situation we were in needing a member on this lesson with Anthony and a million other things. Finally this Austin (also known as Austin Keaton) cuts me off in frustration and goes, "I JUST MOVED HERE AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. I HAVE YOUR FOOD." rip. It didn't help that he was outside of our apartment and was knocking 10 seconds later after we hung up. It was so awkward hahaha. It's okay, the Taco Bell he gave me was sufficient enough to mend my wounds. However, what are the odds though that 2 Austins would be calling us within minutes? I'm not sure what type of coincidence or tender mercy that was but it was interesting. NOW for the important and beneficial details of my week...we are meeting with this guy named Anthony (I called him Andawg this entire week until finally he told me he doesn't like that name...another Elder Gardanier moment). Anthony is super sweet and told us that he is wanting to live with God again and return to live with his family forever. Nothing is greater than looking at Anthony with a calm smile and reassuring that we have the answers. That God wants that for him too. We taught him the Restoration and also read the Book of Mormon and he mentioned how he needs to be rebaptized! We are excited for him and pray that all will go smoothly so that he can be baptized here in a few weeks! ps. My mission is doing something called "fit for the kingdom" which means no soda, no high fructose corn syrup, no refined sugar, and no happiness. hahaha jk. But it is a competition in the mission between all the zones to get up at 6:30 am, drink 64 ounces of water, exercise at least 30 mins a day, and not to drink any energy drinks. I'm excited for some extra motivation to help me get beach body ready for this summer! Love you all! Elder Gardanier