Mission Tour

Tuesday, February 28, 2012,

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to hearing about another week in the life of your favorite missionary. =)

We had our mission tour this last week with Elder Zwick, one of the
Elders in the First Quorum of the Seventy. It was - incredible. I love
to hear from people who really know how to teach with the Spirit. He
wanted to shake each one of our hands. When he shook my hand I was
just so happy and so peaceful, I had this huge ole smile on my face
and he looked at me and said "You are the purest of the pure" and then
his wife told me I look so happy. It was great. He taught us about the
divinity of our callings, about how we are building the foundation for
the rest of our lives, and not limiting ourselves to what we think
about our capacity but letting God stretch us and make us better, and
he will, and about building trust with God. It was a powerful meeting.
I loved every minute of it.

So that was pretty much the high light of the week =)

I've learned a lot this week about myself and about the work. I'm
learning how much I've changed, how I have grown to depend on the 
Savior and access the atonement and I am so grateful, everyday, that I decided to
serve a mission. It has not only changed my life – it has saved my life.
It means the world to me.

We were able to find Swagut again, FINALLY, holy cow! He's
the coolest cat ever but he's so hard to find. Sister Tanner is a big
fan of him, ha-ha. He's a class clown and super funny. He has been to
seminary and he wants to know more about God. We are excited to
teach him tomorrow.

We also had a miracle at the institute. Hyesuhn brought two of her
friends to the lunch forum, Brian and John, and they both are
interested in learning more. We were able to teach them about the
restoration of the Gospel right on the spot and now we just have to
pass them off to the missionaries they belong to. They both live out
of our area. We were just flabbergasted at the miracle though. It was
great. We're excited for both of them. I felt an automatic connection with John,
like I knew him before, and he's going to the Helix Singles
ward to be taught so I wonder if I'll be transferred there at some
point.

Ok - so this week was just full of really amazing experiences because
we also are teaching a girl named Jill who's pretty much incredible.
She's been dating a member for a while and has finally decided to meet
with missionaries and I loved her the moment I started talking with her.
She's a doctor who has a lot of sincere questions, some very real
concerns but her heart is open and we are already good friends. I'm
very grateful for the blessings and the help that God has been giving us. 
Thank you, everyone for all of your prayers on my behalf.

Well I love you all so much!

*big hug*

Love,

Sister Tardiff

Fell out of my chair

Tuesday, February 21, 2012.

Hello All!

The 2 or the three senior couples are going home today. =( We just had a farewell party and it was amazing to hear their testimonies and how much their missions have meant to them. The Brenchley's and the Woodbury's are some of my favorite people in the world. They're testimonies are so strong, and each one of them has made a huge impact on my life. I'll miss them all.  I'm not quite sure how the Battalion will be able to run without them, but I know we'll have to give Elder Seegmiller and the new couples a lot of support. It’s a blessing that they're coming in the middle of a slow season. We can ease them into it. =)

So! The absolute best news of the week that kind of made me fall out of my chair (and by kind of I mean I really did) was that Anna called me from China. And she's doing great! She's going to church every Sunday and.... she wants to go to BYU in the fall for her graduate program. We'll be at the same school if she gets in! Huzzah!! I was so happy to hear her voice and to know that she's doing well. The only glitch that she has is that her ecclesiastical endorsement didn't get submitted properly and the Bishop can't technically resend it because he's not her bishop right now, and there are no bishops in China. So hopefully the bishop will call BYU and see if they can make an exception. I hope so! I would be more than willing to vouch for her, ha-ha. She's doing so well!

The other great news is that James has made a goal for baptism (James is the one who had absolutely no religious background at all) and he came to church, this cute little Taiwanese guy sitting in the pew. It was a happy day! Sunny came to church too! Sunny is so funny and so happy. We were able to alleviate one of her concerns in that she thought that we only studied the Book of Mormon. We explained the two dot object lesson and she now seems a lot more willing to read the Book of Mormon. She's the cutest thing ever. She watched the testaments and her one question afterward was "Well how long did Jesus Christ stay in the America’s for.” It was so cute.

The other news of the week is that I got to do two days of Spanish speaking. Woooosh. My brain was SO tired at the end of the day from trying to understand this foreign language. One time a lady we were teaching looked at me, then at my companion and asked "Does she understand anything" and I said back in Spanish “no” (which is funny in and of itself) and then she turned to Sister Ortez and said "She needs to practice more" Hahaha. I understood that part too! It was hard, it was fun. I got to understand and speak some Spanish, massacre the language and learn just how important the gift of tongues is to those who have been called to speak a foreign language. I am going to learn Spanish after my mission. That is a number one sure thing. I'm going to be as close to fluent as I can get! Watch out world! Here I come!

But! We also got to have some really special experiences with someone named Alfredo. He is trying to find God again and he wants peace and good friends. I was able to testify to him and to have this instant love for him that I know came from God. He's a really, really special guy. He has a five year old son who's the cutest thing on the planet. Also we were able to finally teach Yorbi again. Woohoo! I just want him to come to church and change his life around. He's great, and has so much potential for a great life. =)  It was fun to team teach Yorbi with Sister's Lewis and McCullough.

Our recent convert, Fransisco, and his wife invited us to a free all you can eat dinner at a new restaurant in La Jolla called Corner Bakery. It was SO good! She works there so she got the VIP passes. Then the next day some people gave us another pass and it is the best thing ever! We're probably going to be going there a lot, but it was definitely a lot more fun when it was free, ha-ha.

So that's a quick snap shot of my week. It was really great. This week will be kind of crazy because we're having our mission tour with Elder Zwick. So we're having a huge zone conference tomorrow. There won't be very much time this week to proselyte but I know and can see that miracles will happen. =)

I love you all so much! You are the greatest!

Love you!

~ Sister Tardiff

Valentines Day love

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Hey Everyone,

Happy Valentines Day! Is your heart just swooning with chocolate,
pink hearts, and flowers? =) Today is a really interesting day where
we can show our love for those that we love - everyone that we love!

So the big news of the week is that I accidentally squished my
companion between our car and the one behind it. To be fair to me, I
HAVE become a much better driver. It was night, it was raining, and
she was out there to back me up, and she never told me to stop. So I
was watching her hands as she backed me up right into squishing her
right knee! It was ridiculous and stupid and kind of funny now. But I
definitely cried because I've never hurt anyone before and it wasn't
even entirely my fault. It was both our fault. So I've laughed and
cried over it now, and after about a week, I'm feeling somewhat OK about it.
So I guess that's the funny story of the week as well. It’s a lot
funnier now then it was then.

The other thing that happened that was a surprise is that Brother
Ottesen showed up and bought all the Battalion sisters Root beer. =) It
was so nice of him. =)

We were able to teach a lot of lessons this week and we were able to
add someone named Sunny. Her name is definitely a good definition of
who she is. She is SO happy. She's the cousin of one of the members of
our ward. She's from Korean so we were able to watch the restoration
in Korean and we were able to give her a Korean Book of Mormon. We're
probably going to watch the Testaments in Korean too. Wooot!! I love
languages.

So yes, life is good and it continues forward. Valentines Day is awesome.
We love holidays here on the mission. =)  The bishop in our ward gave each of the Sisters flowers which was so nice. They even gave some to us so we have flowers in our
apartment. Also an investigator of the Elders gave us flowers too,
we're not quite sure what we think about that but... *shrugs* It
happened.

It is crazy how fast time goes by and how many lessons you can learn in a
short amount of time. This week I've really been learning about how
whatever is happening in our life, it’s because God wants it to happen.
So it HAS to be good and I've just become a lot more positive.

Also tomorrow I get to go on exchanges in a Spanish speaking area.
It’ll be great! I’m excited!

Anyway I love you all! You are incredible. Happy Valentines Day!

Love,

Sister Tardiff

The Battalion

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Hey Everyone!

So this week was pretty good! The big news of the week though is that neither Sister Tanner nor I were transferred and we are staying! We've been able to get fed by members, we've been able to see miracles, and we were able to see a truck called
the Sushi Ninja! Yep! That's right we live in the land of the ninjas. Not a bad week!
=)

Yippee!! So I'm staying in the La Jolla Singles ward which is where the Lord needs me to be. Something really cool that I rediscover all day long is how the Lord really sees the big
picture. He sent me full proselyting 4 transfers ago and placed me with a Spanish speaking companion who needed language study. From that language study I've learned how to (kind of) understand Spanish, and I've learned how to (more importantly) street contact in Spanish. In La Jolla from those 5-6 phrases I've learned we've been able to give
the Spanish missionaries lots of referrals and from that has come at least 4 investigators. I don't say that to brag or anything, but I just know that the Lord knows where we need to be because of our talents, our abilities and our backgrounds. He knows way better than I
do what I need, and what his children need.

The Battalion has been great this week. I was able to boldly testify
about Jesus Christ and about God to 3 men on a business trip from
Maryland. They were touched, they know my conviction, and they know my
testimony, and they could not deny it. I hope that at some point in
the future they choose to investigate the Church.

The Lord also sent me an angel in the form of a man named Chuck. Chuck
has Alzheimer’s but he walked into the Battalion and the first thing he
did was compliment me, tell me that I look fit, that my hair looks
great, and that I'm a pretty girl. He constantly reminded me that he
was part of the US Navy. He dressed up like a soldier and he was the
sweetest person I've met in a while. The Lord sent me Chuck in a day
when I needed a reminder of how much God loved me. I certainly felt
loved.

The other cool experience was with a man named Juan. He came into the
Battalion while he has been searching and trying to find himself in a trip
across the country and I testified to him, told him, to listen to the
missionaries, to do what they told him to do, like go to church, read the scriptures, and
pray and that he would find more happiness than he would find anywhere
else. I also extended to him a soft baptismal commitment. It was a
powerful experience. I don't know if I'll ever know if the
missionaries do find him, or if he will choose to access the
atonement, but I pray that he will.

There were so many amazing experiences at the Battalion this week! I
wish I had time to send them all, but the Battalion is a place of
miracles. I'm grateful every day that I was sent here and more and
more my testimony of God and Jesus Christ are solidifying and
strengthening. This mission has been the best year of my life. I'm so
grateful for all the experiences that I've had, for the people I've
met, the lives that have touched mine, and the Lord's hand in my life.

Attitude is everything.

Love,

Sister Tardiff

A week in the life

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

HEYY Everyone,

Sooo....

This week was CRAZY. On Saturday it was Mormon Battalion day which
means that we didn't have any time in our area at all and I was in a
pioneer dress ALL day. We had over 1000 visitors at the Battalion! It
was so fun but so tiring! At the end of the day I had only taken four
tours and the moment I hit my pillow (early I might add) I was
asleep. Whoosh. But! Mormon Battalion day went as follows; we all met
down at Old Town Square in our pioneer gear, really ugly bonnets
included, some of the Elders from the San Diego Zone dressed up as
battalion soldiers, and at 10am we marched in a parade. =) Then Sister
Tanner and I went up to the Battalion and organized the mass
chaos there. We directed people to the theaters and made sure
there was no noise coming from the lobby. It was awesome. I came back
later and was confused about what was going on and Elder Brenchley
(senior couple) teased me since I'd been the "mastermind" earlier that
day. It was awesome though! We also had some time to go down to the
square and direct people up to the Battalion and see all the stations.
It was great. =) My favorite tour though was the one where a guy that
we found down in the square, came up and took the tour with us, and
then referred. He was so awesome and he has two little adorable kids! The Elders in El Cajon are going to be teaching him.

Yesterday I took the cutest Chinese couple through the tour too! I had
to leave half way through to get my cleaning checks done (which we
passed with flying colors I might add =D) But I came back and they
both referred. One of them touched his heart and said that the tour
had "shaken his heart" and he wants to learn more. He lives in
mainland but about an hour and a half away from Hong Kong so we gave
him the address to the nearest church building and he said they would
go, along with a Chinese Book of Mormon. They were so ready and so cute!
They'll get baptized. At the end of the tour they wished us a happy
New Year and they told me that I was born in the year of the dragon.
They were so excited! It means powerful! So when they left they said
goodbye "To the little dragon" It was so cute.

We debugged our apartment too yesterday. I accidentally inhaled some of
the "fogger" stuff but I survived! It was an adventure! We're
almost done hand washing every single one of our dishes, ha-ha and we
found four dead spiders already! Woohoo!

One of the recent converts in our ward might be married... we're kind
of confused about that.

We were able to teach a super cute Venezuelan girl, Kali, the other
day. Her eyes were shining as we taught her about the Book of Mormon.
She told us that she would read the book. I'm excited for her. She is
really cute, and hopefully ready. There is a bit of a language barrier
so we might hand her off to the Spanish sisters, which seems to be a
pattern in this area; find ready people, give them to other
missionaries. =)

I went on exchanges with Sister Kearsley and got to teach her
investigator with a baptismal date. It was so awesome. Her name is Maria and
she just knows what's right. She's also the most normal almost convert
I've ever met. She's 21, has 2 children and is getting married to her
boyfriend in about a week and is excited for baptism. She's great! I
hope I can go to her baptism. Being with Sister Kearsley again was -
the best thing that could have happened to me this week. I was able to
see how much we've both progressed, changed, and just - I'm having a
really hard time putting it in words but I just really hope that we
can be companions again someday. She's amazing.

We started a dinner calendar, and you were right, they feed us well when we let them feed us. We had the MOST delicious meal I've had in my mission - in a
singles ward! They fed us ribs, home made mashed/cheesy potatoes, home
made bread, sparkling limeade and lemonade, and cobbler with gelato
ice cream. I was in heaven and they invited a non member over to dinner and
we ended up teaching a short lesson. I love this ward.

Yesterday one of the recent converts, Hugh, looked at me and told me
he had a feeling that I was leaving soon, which is crazy because he
had no idea that transfers are tomorrow. So I really don't know what's
happening. I might leave, I might stay. I'm not sure what I'd prefer.
I might be ready for a change... but I'd miss the ward.

Soo! That was a snap shot of my week. It was really interesting,
really good, really filled with work at the Battalion, and awesome!

I hope you all had a good week as well! I'm glad there hasn't been
very much snow and that people are doing well.

Also transfers are tomorrow. *gasp* It is so weird. I love the
members of the La Jolla Ward. I feel like I'm finally connecting with
them which means the work should progress a lot faster, but we'll see
what transfer brings.

Read Alma 48: 17-19. I love it!

I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Tardiff

On the road again...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Hey Family!

This is the last week of the transfer... wowowowow. This transfer went by SO fast, I'm not even kidding. I feel like every transfer gets faster and faster and faster. But this week was great. It was a little long, which seems like a contradiction to the fact that the transfer has gone so fast, but in the mission the days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days and it’s like a time warp, ha-ha. I love the mission. I love being here in San Diego. I love the Temple and being on the Temple grounds so much. Miracles ALWAYS happen there, and I love the gospel. =)

Some really good things that happened this week:

1) We FINALLY got in contact with Deshan. He doesn't have a baptismal date anymore but at least he's not avoiding us. *sigh of relief* He's awesome. We took some members with us and members are the key to everything, because members are normal people, missionaries are messengers of God kind of disguised as normal people, ha-ha, but people just see right through us. Members are more relatable for sure.

2) The Christian and the Muslim are both in contact with us. Finahez and Adam and we were able to talk to his roommate Amir. His roommate Amir is probably the most ready of the bunch. He has a deeply spiritual side and instead of trying to teach us about Islam he's really interested in what we believe and how he can be more deeply involved. President Clayton is meeting with him on Wednesday so that he can be cleared to be added as an investigator. =)

3) This one isn't a really good thing, but as a missionary I didn't go to church. My mission is crazy! This weekend was a regional stake conference broadcasted from Salt Lake and the Battalion center was still open so three companionships and the new site director Elder Seegmiller didn't get to go to church at all. It’s adding to the whole time warp thing, but it’s all good. Some good things happened at the Battalion that day, like taking this ADORABLE five year old and her parents through the tour. She'd never seen a movie before so she thought the whole presentation was real. It was so cute. The parents were super respectful as well. They were both Catholic but they want their daughter exposed to a lot of religions and they said that they would definitely come back. =)

4) We've seen a lot of miracles from being where we told God we would be. One of our appointments fell through and so we decided to go to the backups even though it would have been more convenient to just push lunch forward. So we parked at the Temple on Sunday and we see these five YSA's just walking around taking pictures, so I go up and ask if they have any questions about the Temple and they have TONS about temples and Mormons. The questions were all super respectful too. Long story short we are sending two of them a Book of Mormon and we are sending them with the missionaries, Steven and Noblee. =) It was so awesome. They're from Los Angeles so we also gave them the address to the LA visitor center. =D

5) People in our ward are feeding us dinner! We finally gave in and sent around a dinner calendar as a more productive and awesome way to meet members of the ward. Our first meal was DELICIOUS; authentic Philippine food, with lumpia! Yummy!

6) Also the cutest thing happened. We added an investigator named James who is Taiwanese and when we went back to give him a traditional Chinese Book of Mormon he gave us New Year presents with a dollar in it. I just love people so much, and people are SO nice.

7) I'm going to put a concerted effort into learning how to ballroom dance again at some point in my life thanks to Mark. =D

Some not so good things that happened this week:

1) It rained yesterday (which are highly diverse weather conditions in San Diego) and I was sopping wet, and kind of cold, but it was OK. =) I wore a rain jacket and everything.

2) I almost went stir crazy during weekly planning. My attention span needs to be improved upon, ha-ha. I was rocking and could not stay still for the life of me. Good thing we take breaks and have ice cream to eat.

So... yep, that's about it. =D

So that's a somewhat organized snap shot of my week. It’s been kind of a roller coaster week of ups and downs, mostly ups and I'm grateful for all the experiences that I've had. =)

I love you all so much! Thanks for being so involved in my mission and my life and being such a wonderful family. You are the best!

Love,

Sister Tardiff

A week of weeks

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Hello my favorite people in the world,   

I don't even remember what I wanted to write. Uhm... probably about the time my companion and I got stuck between a locked parking garage and a locked apartment complex and were there for like 20 minutes before we ended up praying and getting released literally two minutes later. My entire life has been telling me and guiding me to know that prayer is real and has power. It truly does. It has the power to heal and the power to find, to see miracles in our lives, both physically and also spiritually and emotionally. It was super funny as we were stuck and even funnier when we got out.

We got to teach a lot this week which was really awesome. We also added someone who is so awesome. We were on exchanges at that point so I wasn't able to be there at the lesson, but I street contacted into him. His name is Marino so I'm excited to teach him again. He's never had a relationship with God but he knows prayer is powerful. Also on exchanges I got to teach the Sister’s investigator who is getting baptized on Sunday and he's a marine. While we were waiting for the lesson to begin he taught me how to back a car military style. I'll have to show you sometime. It’s super funny and makes backing the car a lot more enjoyable. He's super solid too. We might end up going to his baptism. =)

The other miracle experience, a once in a lifetime type of experience sort of thing, that we had is that we went to contact a referral and he didn't even live there, he had just moved, but the person who did live there got us his phone number and called him over. Meanwhile we were talking to two Indians that JUST got to the states, then Adam showed up and we started teaching him the restoration since there were no girls home, and he had brought a friend, so we were teaching 5 boys about the restoration, a Hindu (India), two Muslims (Jordan and India), a Christian (India) and a Palestine and then two MORE people showed up. I was trying to be focused on the lesson but I was in awe as more people started to show up and gather around these two Christian girls talking about Joseph Smith. We ended up adding a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim and have a potential investigator in the Muslim's roommate who's from Mongolia. What??? It was crazy. I'm excited to teach them all. 

Also we got our new site director. He's name is Elder Seegmiller and he is AMAZING. He's like a father figure and he has a lot of good ideas for how to make the Mormon Battalion even more successful then it already is, which is awesome because I think the Mormon Battalion is in the top three referral producing sites that the church has. It is pretty cool. =) Everything just works in our favor. We have an AWESOME presentation, we're in a historic site park and it’s near the temple. I can't wait for the temple visitor center to be finished. It was hard to say goodbye to the Evans because they are amazing. Their legacy is here at the Mormon Battalion, but the Lord calls and qualifies and changes things because it’s His time and His Site, and miracles will happen. 

Well... that's a little snap shot of my week. I am still going strong and still doing well. The mission is moving forward. I have a feeling some really miraculous things are about to hit the La Jolla Singles ward, I hope that I'll be here to see the effects of all the labor =D Transfers are in two weeks. Crazy! 

Love you all! 

Love, 

Steph

Skirts in January!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Hey Everyone!!

It’s so funny that it’s January, seriously, because even though it’s a little chilly, every morning at 6:30 am I go outside in shorts and a t-shirt and I'm perfectly fine. It’s the best thing ever. It doesn't even feel like January. I'm a big fan of this weather. Also it’s not even that cold in skirts and such. Yesterday I forgot a sweater and even though I got some goosebumps I was surviving and not getting frostbite. Win!

There have been highs and there have been lows. But I'm grateful for both because they have made me who I am today and will continue to make me who I need to be. I'm finally getting to the point that I don't see my self worth as how many people I've baptized, which has only been 2 in an entire year, and one isn't active, or reactivated but that I've worked to do my very best each day to bring souls to Christ, and that is all that the Lord expects of me and all that I can expect of myself, regardless of how the world views it. It’s weird because I've become super hard on myself as a missionary, and I just need to practice what I teach and apply the atonement in my own life as well.

So this week was good. Sister Tanner is incredible. I love her. She is super easy going, strives to improve all the time, is willing and up for anything, and is just so nice. I'm pretty sure she is turning into my favorite companion and I've only been with her for three weeks. =) I don't know if I told you about her but she is from Canada. She has shortish hair, doesn't like sports, and is super clean - which means, with much concerted effort on my part - our apartment is REALLY neat. I know! Crazy! But it’s true. I'll have to take a picture so you'll believe me. *laughs* It feels really good though. I'm going to try to do that for the rest of my life. It makes life so much easier when it comes time to deep clean.

Sister Tanner is a MAGNET for less actives. We've had a couple of less actives that we've been working with, but Sister Tanner gets into the area and now we have like... 10? I've never seen anything like it. But Kelsey is definitely the most prepared. We went to go see her and she just started crying and saying that missionaries are an answer to her prayers, and that even though she looks different on the outside that she is still the same Kelsey. I love her so much, so much. She was a tender mercy from the Lord to us, even as we were to her.

Funny story: So this week we had some good times with members coming out with us. It started out with what seemed like a miracle and turned into a .... not as much miracle. We were driving down this street to try and contact a referral and I was kind of annoyed because there was NO ONE on the street to street contact, and I honestly really love to contact random strangers, and so I told Sister Tanner that if I saw someone on the street that I was going to pull over and talk to them. Well... the next street comes along and I see someone. So what do I do? I pull over and go out and talk to them. He's super nice, friendly, we talked to him a bit and he gave us his address and set up a time so we could come back and see him. Miracle, right? Well we went back to see him, with our Relief Society President, go through leaps and bounds to get into this SUPER gated community, find him, and he's hung over, high and a drug dealer. Lame. 

But I guess we have his address and phone number and we gave him to the zone leaders because he's 31 and in their area. So... maybe someone in his apartment complex needs the Gospel. *shrugs* But anyway... that's one of the good times we had with members. Another one was with a girl named Blakely who reminds me of Sister Croker which automatically means that she's great, and we go and visit Mark. Hurray! His friend Brandan sat in on the lesson with us, and even though he didn't set a return appointment he told us he'd read the Book of Mormon. That was definitely a miracle, and Blakely is amazing.

We had interviews with President and it was awesome. I feel so blessed and so lucky to be at San Diego at this time to serve under him.

Yesterday I took someone on tour that still had the misconception that Mormons have multiple wives and that we don't live in society. It was SO good that she came because now she knows that we're normal, that we believe in Christ and that women are not mistreated. It was definitely not a normal tour that's for sure; actually all the tours I took yesterday were out of the norm. I'm not really sure why *shrugs*

But I'm happy as a little clam. I love this work. I love the Gospel. I love you all! Keep working hard and staying strong! Do the little things each day - C-church P-pray R- read. It’s CPR for the soul. =)

Love you!!

~ Sister Tardiff

Happy New Year!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Hello family!! 

Happy New Year everyone!

I got the pillow case from the ward. It is so nice. Thank you all so much.

This was a week of languages, ha-ha. I learned how to say a sentence in Romanian that I now completely forgot but a guest wrote it down for me, and I tried out my one word of Chinese, spoke a sentence of Portuguese that made this Brazilian so happy, and then was able to talk to some really amazing Mexicans in Spanish. Slowly but surely I'm going to learn every language in the world! Ha-ha, not, but at least I'm going to try. =D

People are finally coming back, parking is starting to get harder and harder to find and it just makes me super happy, because all the students are coming back! Woohoo! So happy! At sacrament meeting we had more than 20 people and it was great. Sister Tanner got to meet some of the people in the ward and we got to set up appointments with them. I'm really excited for this next transfer. It’s going to be one of miracles.

This week was a little bit challenging but it was really good at the same time. I think that's kind of how things go sometimes. We had some really positive, awesome experiences and then we had days where it seemed like they went really slowly and discouragingly. I love the line in Preach My Gospel, though, that says that although sometimes you will have disappointments you never have to be disappointed in yourself if you are doing all you can to bring others to Christ. I've been having a lot of introspection about that particular statement and I know that I'm trying my very best, and working as hard as I can each day to bring everyone I meet to Christ. It’s been a good week.

We had a really excellent experience yesterday. We had decided that our vision for this week was to find an elect. Our goals to make that vision happen was to be exactly where we told God we would be every hour of the day, and be diligent in keeping schedule even if it didn't make sense driving wise. So we were going to find this Chinese man named Liang at about 7 last night and I got the distinct impression that we needed to go to the temple. We were right next to the temple, and I thought about our vision and goals for the week, but the impression continued so I told Sister Tanner we were going to the temple. We drove slowly in and we couldn't see anyone, until sister Tanner pointed out this person in dark colors taking pictures of the temple. We parked, went up to him, and this Brazilian was searching for a church, had tried a lot of Christian churches and just didn't believe it. We were able to testify about the Book of Mormon and about the temple, but I think what really made him reconsider was your story mom and dad. He asked about my family. It was after I told about our conversion story that he said that we'd "convinced" him. That he would take a Book of Mormon. So we gave him one in English and are going to send him one in Portuguese.

Elise's parents came to the battalion and it was crazy that we were there at the same time. Yesterday was our full day, but we went to go on a tour with one of our investigators and they came 10 minutes later. Apparently it was meant to be. They bought us lunch too. It was so nice of them. =)

We've also had some really funny conversations with people over the phone. I'm the one driving so I just hear one side of the story. But this one guy named Lamont was a referral and Sister Tanner was talking to him, and its going pretty normal until I hear "Moses? YEAH he's a prophet!" out of NOWHERE. I'm going to be quoting that for the rest of my life. =D He said we could set up a time to meet with him via his friend Wilson. That is pretty sweet. He'll be a really entertaining person to teach I imagine.

Deshan has accepted a date for baptism. Hurray =D He is so cool. We love teaching him.

I love a scripture I found in D & C 84: 60-72. It’s about missionaries and those who have been called as high priests. He gives us a great promise and responsibility and I am so grateful for that opportunity that I have.

So yep! That's my week! I love it here! I love serving the Lord and I love my mission president. He is called of God.  I love the temple! I love following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and I love the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Tardiff