Mi familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
How are you all? I miss your sweet faces! I can't wait to call you all NEXT SUNDAY! :) I can't wait to hear your voices and just talk to you. :) I love you all.
speaking of which, that would work great. Our church is at nine. I don't know if there is a time difference here? I don't think so. I will call grandpas house at 1:30 pm if that is okay? And then I will call home about 7 pm if that is okay? I am only supposed to take about 40 minutes total, unless President tells me otherwise. So I will probably call grandma and grandpas for 10-15 minutes and home for 25-30.
I can't believe this is my last phone call home before I actually COME home. Our year mark is just after the end of this transfer. It is going by so quickly.
Haha, I am glad you enjoyed the royal wedding. Haha.. it's all we've heard about. Ha... mommy, will you watch it with me when I get home? :) I'll dress up in pearls and gloves again with ya and we can whip up some trifle again. ;) I feel honored to have the heritage we do.
On LDS.org I learned you can request patriarchal blessings of deceased anscestors. I have loved reading over Grandpa and Grandma gardners lately. Absolutely incredible people. I love them so much and cherish the memories I have with them. I have started writing them all down. When I am home I'd love to help you with it all and organize your cute new office! :) It will give me something to do! ;) haha. I LOVE family history work!
I also read a copy of Grandpa Jardine's father's blessing. It intrigued me. I am really curious about his life. Dad I would love anything you remember or any stories you have of him and his wife?
Dad, I loved your advice and feelings on sacrifice and the youth. It is so true. And it is good advice I will follow. Haha... it's what Elder Cook stated when he talked to us all at the youth fireside as well. Don't wait for lots of money or some incredible education, EVEN to stabilize a good family. Your FIRST priorities are ALWAYS family and the gospel. EVERYTHING else, even good intentions for those come second. He challenged all of us to put those first. Prepare ourselves for a worthy companion, become a worthy companion and focus on our future families being raised in the gospel.
I promise to do so. ha. You can help me get there someday soon enough.
I do keep a daily journal. Maybe I will photocopy some pages and send some home sometimes.
I love the assignments! :) haha. I have to ask you a favor though. We are limited in resources for finding out much info about downtown (can't on computers, newspapers etc)............. so. Could you google the tallest and oldest buildings? Email me an address for each and I will put them in our GPS and we'll head there! For any other future sites as well! That will help a LOT! :) I am excited! Have me go get you all something, do some research :)
The english family from the Los Alamos ward here are heading up to Logan memorial day weekend, so I will send some stuff home with them I don't need or can't fit, and also can send you anything you like :) I AM going to send you some of the BEST tortillas here! :) Mmmmm...
Speaking of which...
BEST salsa recipe! It's kind of a purified guacamole, but I LOVE it.
K......
get like 5 Tomatillos,
one Jalepeno
two avacados
and some cilantro
Peel the tomatillos, and in a pot of boiling water, boil them and the jalepeno until they have all changed colors completely.
Drain and cool.
Take out the stems of both and the seeds in the jalepeno and put all of them in the blender or food processor. Then add the avacado and cilantro. All to taste.
YUM! It's my favorite atleast. We make it all the time. For tacos or chips.
I'll dig up the other good stuff we eat all the time and send some more recipes this week.
Oh! Also, ha. Not mexican at all............ but YUM! You would love this.
At their sushi restaurant they make this and we have learned and helped occasionaly.
Fried Ice Cream.
Scoop a ball of whatever icecream you want... creambased not sherberts.
Get Angel food cake, cut it into 1/2 or so slices and wrap them around your ice cream ball. tightly, so you can no longer see the ice cream. Pack it tight. Then dip in tempura batter, and immerse in hot oil for about a minute or so.
YUM. WAY fattening and can only handle so much. But YUM.
Weekly Highlight:
Dear President Miller,
Thank you so much for all your help and support.
The Greatest Highlight of this week was our Brother Quintana. He recieved a very strong answer this week. I have felt such great joy in bringing others to the gospel, but never as much as this, completing an eternal family.
We have been working with his family since last October.
I was looking back on my journal entries from then about his family and feel absolutely blessed. Heavenly Father has answered many prayers. Every time I came home from their house I prayed we could help him be baptized and have his family forever. In October, he wanted little to do with the church, or us. With time, around November, he became our friend. We clicked with him, but he still wasn't interested in the church and anytime we would teach he chose to leave. In December, we finally found a way to keep him in the room during a lesson. We watched the Testaments and later the Legacy with their family. Though he didn't share our beliefs, I was humbled to see him asking so many questions.... and in particular questions about Joseph Smith, he began reading Joseph Smith History. I will never forget the joy I felt with him and the scriptures before him for the first time. In January we had our branch primary program. If there is one thing that defines this man, it is that he loves his girls, all three, and his wife. He came to watch them. I had to sit on the stand and remember seeing the spirit he felt in his eyes. He could feel something pure and true. Come February Sister Perez and I began trying to teach his family more consistently. We challenged him to take the discussions and begin coming to church. He was nice and polite but responded with he didn't need an answer to a question he didn't have. We kept our friendship with him and were pleasently surprised when he came to church the next sunday... in a shirt and tie. He had purchased them the day before. His girls were overjoyed. He began coming to church consistently and we began visiting more often. In March we felt prompted to spend special time on strengthening the principles of lesson one, to let him feel of their truth. We began helping them with personal and family scripture study for a small amount of time each day. We moved to consistent prayer and eventually the restoration. He came to love the book of mormon. He began to wonder if it was true.
In April we set a baptismal date with him, and he accepted to work towards it, but still hadn't recieved an answer. He didn't know if it was true. He had many doubts and worries.
On April 29th 2011, he recieved his answer.
The night before as we finished our lesson, he genuinly wanted to know if it was all true, or not. We all knelt in prayer and he offered it. It was heartfelt and sincere. He said after he left, he still felt the fire to know, but didn't know what to do. He spent much of the night studying and praying, but still nothing. The next morning as well, he studied and still nothing. Finally, he said he offered a last attempt, a sincere prayer in solitude, and then let his scriptures fall open where they may.
D&C 19 flipped open and he read, as he red on, especially towards the end of the chapter, he recieved a powerful witness that this IS God's TRUE church on the earth. That the book of mormon is TRUE. That Joseph Smith WAS a prophet, and that being baptized on May the 14th is exactly what he should do.
I have never felt so humbled. Yesterday as we studied with him again, I see a completely changed man. I know he will do many great things, in life and in the church. I love him as a brother and will always love their family as my own.
This gospel IS true. I can bear my firm witness that I know it in my soul. I have patiently witnessed it change a soul from the inside out.
I feel speechless.
May 14th will be one of the best days of my life.
Thank you so much for guiding my in this service.
I will always be grateful I came on a mission.
It has changed my soul.
Love,
Sister Jardine
I love you all!!! Thank you so much!!! :) I CAN'T WAIT to call you and hear your voices sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Seed.
pic 1/2-quintanas in October
Baptism pics to come!
