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

Merry Post Christmas!

December 27, 2011

Hey Everyone!!

We got completely taken care of on Christmas day. It was a little Christmas miracle! Not only am I completely back to normal but we also got to teach the gospel which was definitely a tender mercy because out of the entire singles ward there were only 4 people other than us and our investigators at sacrament meeting. Everyone deserts us on the holidays! But we were able to find those who were home and share the Spirit of Christ. So wonderful! One of the people we are working with, Marsi, even gave us Christmas presents. It was so nice of her! She got me a water bottle which is going to make Sister Stevens really happy because she's been trying to get me to buy a water bottle for months... I'm constantly in a state of semi dehydration because I just never remember to drink water... whoops... good thing Marsi's got my back. =)  An amazing family named the Hansen's invited us over for Christmas and gave us puppy chow and toffee... soooo yummy. I told them that they had made your Christmas better because if they hadn't offered to feed us we would have been having peanut butter and jelly. =D They are a great family. You'll totally have to meet them some day.

We've been so busy we haven't even had time to carol! Not even on Christmas! We had an amazing lesson with Zeus on Sunday and the Spirit was so strong. We know that he knows that he needs to be baptized but he wants to wait a couple of years. We're doing everything we can so that the Spirit can testify to him that he needs to get baptized sooner, because he won't do it any other way. The Spirit is the teacher, and we're just learning more and more how to invite the Spirit stronger. I love it.

We were able to be on the grounds of the temple at night and that was neat. So many people from all over the world are drawn to the lit up temple grounds and the House of the Lord. One of the people I talked to is now getting taught which is awesome. =)

Sister Tanner is awesome! She is from Canada! I have an international companion! It was sad to say goodbye to Sister Stevens but the moment President told me that Sister Tanner was my new companion I knew that it was right. Miracles will happen together and I can already tell that we are going to learn and grow so much from each other. I'm trying to get into the habit of something Sister Evan's invited me to do which is to make my companions success way more important to me than my successes. It’s continuing to get easier and easier to do that the longer I'm out. It’s really incredible. I feel like I'm a good missionary in the midst of great missionaries and I'm just trying to keep up! Ha-ha, the Lord is whipping me into shape. =)

This past week has been awesome. There was so much Christmas spirit and so many nice people who took care of us. Sister and Elder Evan's, the site directors, are going home Jan 13th and we are getting a new one, but they gave us all a small thing of real gold. That was so nice of them. I took a picture of me in front of all the presents. People are just so nice! I love them!! 

This week will be great! We have a lot of less active members we want to contact and people will be returning! Woooohoooo! Who would have ever thought that I'd be excited for the END of winter break? Yep! That's me! I'm excited for the campus to fill up and our ward members and investigators to return. It'll be awesome. We're losing Courtney Hansen though to BYU I. But she'll be awesome there, even if she turns into a little icicle. Ha-ha.

I know that life is good and I'll continue to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost so I’ll know what to do and where to go. I know my future is bright and I am just focusing on working until the very end on the thing that matters the most - the Gospel. It’s been incredible. I'm enjoying every minute of it. I am glad that life cannot get any better.

But I just love you so much! Have an amazing rest of your holiday season!

Love,

Sister Tardiff

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011,

Heyo!

I wish you a merry Christmas! I wish you a merry Christmas! I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Can you believe that Christmas is on Sunday? That seems really incredible. The time has definitely flown that is for sure. But this is definitely a very merry Christmas and I have grown to love my Savior and celebrate his birth a lot more in this holiday season. We have spent our time offering Christmas DVDs, giving Christmas lessons, Christmas caroling and invite people to come unto Christ. I love it. =)  This last week has been really good, but also a really good chance to learn and to grow. Merry Christmas!

We were able to teach someone named Steven with his member friend, Dan. My word, I learned so much about teaching and being bold. One statement stood out a lot to me. Steven told us that he didn't feel like he could go to our church because he needed to go to his own service so he would just explore on his own and Dan looked at him and said "I'm sorry but you are wrong. You need to go to our church to really find out if it’s true." I've just been learning a lot about boldness these last couple of months, because if you're a weak sauce missionary then people are never going to change, make changes to make their lives more in harmony with the Savior and come unto Christ. It's so amazing. I know that these ordinances that we are inviting people to are powerful and that this is the only way for them to truly celebrate and know Christ. It is so powerful to be bold. =)

We had very many cool experiences this week. One of them was really draining spiritually, but we ran into a woman at the Temple who served a mission in Argentina and then went inactive because of things that were happening in her life. She came to the Temple, really kind of messed up in her mind, saying that the church was completely a different church, and she just kept talking. At one point I just said "I sustain the living prophet, I know that he is called of God and I will follow him and his teachings" the Spirit came and she was just silent. She just looked at me, and then said “thank you.” That might have been the only good part of that conversation. But the rest of the Temple was great. I love being there on Temple grounds with the lights and with all these people who are drawn to the Temple, members and non members alike who just want to feel the Spirit.

The best part of the week by far though was that Anna got her Patriarchal blessing. One of the members from the Pacific Beach ward gave us a ride - right in time for her to go back to China on Thursday. The day before she just kept saying she was struggling not knowing what to do between work and school and she came out of the blessing saying she knows now what she needs to do and that she will be an influence and a missionary to many. It's so amazing. The Spirit was so strong and I feel blessed and lucky to have been and continue to be part of her life. She also got her ecclesiastical endorsement done so she can apply to BYU. *fingers crossed* =)

It’s so crazy that it’s Christmas already! It is so weird being in a singles ward because everyone is leaving. I'm not even kidding! We used to have to scramble and parallel park (which I can do now o_o!!) and now we can just park anywhere we want. It’s so sad. But now we'll be able to focus on the people who are staying around for Christmas who need a little bit of extra love so that will be great. I feel really blessed to be the Lord’s angel in that way.

We met the coolest guy asking if we could share a Christmas message. =) His name is Mark and he said he'd get baptized if he knows it's true, but he's leaving for Los Angeles. While teaching him though I realized how often I now say the words "cool, sweet, awesome" It’s embarrassing. Life is just so great! But I need to broaden my vocabulary.

I have just come to know so much this week how blessed I am, how real my testimony in the Gospel is and how lucky I am to have it.  This Gospel changes lives.  The Temple is a real place of comfort. I am really grateful for this mission opportunity that I have. This opportunity I have to teach these children in San Diego, to bring them closer to God and to share my love and my testimony with them. There is nothing else I would rather be doing. My mission means everything to me and I know it will continue to for the rest of my life. The Gospel is what it’s about. Christ and his Atonement are what are important. Teaching the Gospel is so fun. I will teach it for the rest of my life to whoever will listen to me.

The best gift we can give this year is our wills to the Lord, our trust and our faith, and then we will see miracles.

I love you all so much! Have an amazing Christmas and give each other lots of hugs and love! Oh and decorate a ballin' tree!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

SMILE!

LOVE

<Sister Tardiff>

The Spirit of Christmas

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Good Morning!!

This week was a miracle! It’s like Thanksgiving ends and suddenly everyone remembers Jesus Christ again and how much He has done for the world. Last night we went caroling and it was amazing! People opened their door to us when we sang to them when they would never do it normally and we got some solid potential investigators from it. =) One potential investigator's name is Swagat. He was so nice. He loved the caroling and said he'd watch the free Christmas DVD. Hopefully we'll be meeting him again on Thursday and sharing a Christmas message with him. The Christmas season is going to bring miracles. I have no doubts about it.

The real miracle is that we were able to add a lot of investigators. We added 5 new investigators. That's the most I've ever added as a Battalion Sister. It was a real miracle. The Lord knew that we were doing the best we could and rewarded us. The people we added are pretty awesome too. One of them is from India. The San Diego Battalion is the most international mission ever! Yep! I'm pretty sure it is. It’s just been a really incredible week. I know that we experience hard times because the Lord wants us to appreciate the good times even more. He is such a blessing to us. Yesterday, I got to use some of the Spanish I've picked up as well. Woohoo! In the past few weeks we've "put on the backburner" a lot of people we were meeting with and we've focused primarily on finding less actives and on getting the members more involved. But this last week we prayed with all of our faith for referrals. When we pray for specific things, we definitely get specific answers. The Lord has blessed us a lot with referrals and some of those referrals have turned into people who are investigating that we can meet with, most of them after finals though. Finals are this week which means that there is a finals breakfast every single day. We're trying to get non members to go like Swagat and a girl named Lisa. We get to go tomorrow. =) After finals everyone will be free! A Christmas/birthday present to me!

Max and a kid named Yoda came to church on Sunday. Ha-ha. They are both super funny. Yoda came with his friend Makani, and they came to the Battalion yesterday and we're meeting with them again tonight. They are just... funny. It’s the best way to describe them. Makani is less active but is forced to go to church because he's living with his aunt and Yoda is not a member. They are exploring ALL religions; reading the Quran and the Torah and the Hindu script. It’s impressive. Our goal is to get them to read the Book of Mormon. But the reason they are so funny is because they want to be Yak's. I'm not even kidding. They want to have a Yak farm. I think that was the single funniest lesson I've ever been in. It was great; spiritual, but also hilarious.

I did get to see most of the Christmas devotional! It was great. The movie clips they showed were awesome.

I got to go on exchanges again with Sister Burden! We're meant to be companions forever, I'm pretty sure, because in every single group (the Battalion is equivalent to a district), we've been together. So we've gotten to go on exchanges a lot, and it’s a party. It’s cool to see how much she has grown and how we can still learn and grow from each other. The mission is the best experience ever. I would never change it for the world. I've become so much more aware of how precious every person on this earth is, how miracles truly happen every day, and how faith brings specific responses.

This work is real, it’s true, and it truly brings happiness. I'm so blessed to be part of it here in San Diego.

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Sister Tardiff

Temple Lights

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hey Everyone!

How was Thanksgiving? I got SOO full. I thought I was going to pop the buttons on my pioneer dress. Which is so cool, right? I got to eat Thanksgiving dinner dressed like a protestant pioneer. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity right there and I got to do it! =) Seriously, we were so taken care of on Thanksgiving. The senior institute couple, the Barnes, fed all the "orphans" and they cooked this magnificent meal with turkey and ham (SO good) and yams and real potatoes and we went and ate with them and some stragglers in the ward, and then literally like 30 minutes later we were changed into our pioneer dresses eating Thanksgiving part two put on by the senior couples at the Battalion. My goodness, I literally thought I was going to explode and then I got to go take tours. Ha-ha, it was like lugging around a load of bricks in my stomach but it was so good! Since there were so many leftovers, I've had Thanksgiving dinner every day from Thursday to Sunday. It was pretty awesome! People love missionaries and they love Thanksgiving.

The Barnes are leaving this Friday as they complete their mission. We are so grateful for them and their service towards the ward members and us.

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful lead into the Christmas season. We start by being thankful for all the many blessings we receive and we then get to remember all that Christ did for us. I'm so excited to be on the mission during this Christmas season. I know that there will be miracles, because just like during the black out, hearts will be softened and we have so many tools that we can use to introduce people to the church - including the temple lights that we helped put up! It is so cool, yesterday we drove by the Temple since it’s in our area and half of the lights were on. It’s going to be so pretty, and now for the rest of my life I'm going to be attached to that one tree that I helped decorate, ha-ha.

We had some miracles this last week. We've been praying for referrals, asking for referrals, and doing all we can to find people to teach. The Lord certainly answers prayers. In the last couple of days we've received 7 referrals and now we have the opportunity and blessing to be able to contact them - people who have had contact with missionaries before and actually want what we are giving them. We also were able to find people who are interested, ask intelligent questions, and will read the Book of Mormon. It’s funny because I'm like 10 months into my mission and I feel like I'm finally becoming effective. It might have been a long time coming, but I'm so grateful that I've been able to see the progress and the tools that I was able to use so I can progress and help other people to come unto Christ.

Derek is one of those miracles. He lives at a formers house so we just contacted into him and he is just a really awesome guy. We were talking about repentance and guilt vs. godly sorrow and he looked at me and he said "that sounds right, that feels right" It was a really amazing experience. He'll read the Book of Mormon. He has a 13 year old son and he's a bit too old for the singles ward so we're going to teach him one more time and then pass him off to the 10th ward elders. Max is another one of those people who is just fun to teach. We're praying he'll come to church on Sunday.

Some things I've learned in my Gospel study and with the lesson we had with Hugh is just about how much Heavenly Father loves us and wants to bless us. In Mosiah it talks about how even if we served God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength we would still be unprofitable servants. But he wants to bless us anyway, not because we deserve it but because he loves us and so we should never feel unworthy for blessings. Heavenly Father will bless us with those things that he chooses. Always we should know that we are loved.

Krystin is also leaving the ward and going home to find a job. We'll miss her but she went to church last Sunday! Woohoo! Even though she claims she's bored ha-ha. As she gets involved in the ward in LA she'll be a lot happier. She has a testimony of the Gospel and she knows she has to follow God. She'll be awesome there.

That's pretty much it in my life. One of the coolest things I've discovered for my birthday this year is that I'll be a palindrome for the first time in 11 years! It will last for a whole year! It's so awesome. =) I just love palindromes.

Funny story:  We have district meeting every week, and the zone leaders are late, a lot. So we decided to try an experiment to make district meeting half an hour later at 11. So we were sitting, waiting for the zone leaders and at about 11:20 they walk in. Elder Peck the district leaders says "we'll we've just learned it doesn't matter what time district meeting is, it will still start twenty minutes late." Ha-ha, so we moved district meeting back to 10:30. Heh. Good times. We've also started playing a game called Book of Mormon baseball. So funny. I'll play it with you all when I get back. =) So get practicing!

Anyway! I hope you all have a fantastic week! You are all incredible and I love you so much! =) You are in my prayers!

Love,

Sister Tardiff