Soeur Gardner's Caribbean Adventures

We haven't heard too much from or about Soeur Gardner since she arrived, but we know that her plane landed at about 10:00 pm Monday night. We received a very short email from her on Tuesday night saying that she is going to serve in French Guiana with a Swiss companion. Of course, we were very excited about the Swiss companion! And we've heard great things about French Guiana and the members there! Today, her mission president's wife shared a few photos of the new missionaries - we were surprised to see that there were 9 since she only traveled with one sister. Most of the English-speaking missionaries go to the Dominican Republic MTC though. The pics aren't shareable, so I just snapped a pic of a pic so we could at least document her beautiful smile.  Here are a few fun facts about French Guiana: It has been a region of France since 1946, but has switched hands between the British, Portuguese, and French since the 1500s It is the second largest region of F...

I was sent this photo by my friend, Lisa, who is long-time friends with the Fishers, Morgan's new mission president and wife. The Fishers are in the MTC too, getting ready for their 3-year assignment. Morgan leaves for Barbados on Monday and they leave on Wednesday. I'm not sure who the other sisters in the picture are - I am guessing maybe they know them from home? Because I think Morgan is the only sister in the MTC right now going to Barbados. Also, last night we got a sweet phone call from our friend, President Dan Dunnigan. He is also in the MTC for his training to be mission president in Philadelphia. He wanted to let us know that he had run into Morgan and that she looked "happy and healthy and radiant". She is loving what she is doing. How fun for her to see her new mission president and friends from home on the same day. 24 hours from now, she'll be starting her journey to Barbados!

Salut tout le monde (hi everybody)!  This week has been a really good one! It’s basically my last week in the MTC, I’m leaving really early  on Monday  morning for Barbados (as far as I know— I haven’t heard news about my visa but apparently no news is good news  ). I can’t believe my time in the MTC is almost over! I was honestly nervous that I wouldn’t like the experience here, and there are some aspects of it that I’m not too sad to leave. But all in all, I’ve loved it here. I’ve come to love my teachers and my district so much, it’ll be really hard to say goodbye to everyone. Something about going through this transition together really causes you to have a special bond. They’ve become like my second family in a way. It’s been fun having people going to lots of different missions in our district, but it’s hard at the same time since I probably won’t see most of them again...   we’ll do our best to stay in touch and maybe someday we’ll get to h...

Bonjour everybody! This week has been a pretty good one! Time is slowly starting to pass like normal again and I'm settling into MTC life.  So  on Monday  we started teaching our first "investigator" in TRC (teaching resource center). Most of the investigators in TRC are actually members who are just acting like investigators to give new missionaries practice teaching. Our investigator's name is Sarah, she's 22 and from Nevada but moved to Provo at 18 to get away from her family-- her parents aren't members and they drink and fight a lot. She lives with her aunt in Provo, who is a member and suggested she meet with missionaries to help her face some challenges she's having lately. It's been pretty good teaching her, we do it in English so I understand her at least, haha :) She's really sweet; we haven't made tons of progress with her yet but she has hope that the Gospel can help her life. When I first left on my mission I was hone...

Hello everyone!! I made it to my P-Day (Preparation Day), which will be on Fridays for the next 3 weeks in the MTC (Missionary Training Center). I've only been here since Wednesday but it's important to celebrate the little things, right? :) So I guess I'll start from the beginning-- when my family left me at the airport! I got to my gate without any trouble and sat down eating some breakfast. I was on the lookout for people who looked like they might be missionaries, and I saw a young guy in a suit walk up to the gate and sit down. I knew he must be a missionary too, so I went and talked with him for a little bit. He is going to Taiwan speaking Mandarin, and he's from Pennsylvania! He was super nice and talking to him calmed my nerves a little bit. We chatted until we got on the plane. The plane ride was interesting since as a missionary I'm not allowed to watch movies or view any entertainment basically, so I tried to get some sleep and wrote in my journ...

Doug's sister Lisa picked Morgan up at the airport, took her to lunch, and then to the MTC. Here is a pic with her host at the MTC and with Aunt Lisa and cousins. I got to talk to Morgan on Lisa's phone for a minute so she could let me know a few things she forgot. She sounded happy and ready to get to work. Thanks Lisa for taking good care of her!

Soeur Gardner got on a plane a few hours ago, and now it's time to update her blog with all of the pre-mission preparations! February: Call received, started preparations for her visa, studied all we could about the French regions in the Caribbean March: Visa paperwork turned in, went through the Provo City Center temple for endowment April: Finished up the semester at BYU and traveled home for a few weeks May: This is where it got kind of crazy, so we will detail this! The first big event in May is that Morgan's best friend, Jacob, left on his full-time mission to Arizona. We love Jacob and wish him all the best as he serves the people there. Sometime in the middle of May (3 weeks before she was to leave), I heard from a mom in the Facebook group for the Barbados mission that she would need a face-to-face consulate visit in order to obtain a visa for the French regions, otherwise she may end up being a visa waiter. Not that it would be a huge deal to visa wait, but...