The one where we had pancakes for 4 days straight

I have been learning that there is no such thing as "free" or "spare" time as a missionary. And this week we had absolutely no time for buying groceries so we searched the house for things to eat and we found THE BEST PANCAKE RECIPE IN THE WORLD! All it took were some ingredients we had lying around in the house and oh my goodness it is GOLDEN and we accidentally fell in love with these pancakes. We ate them for breakfast and once (dinner basically) for 4 days straight...so there’s that... 

But on a completely different note, I have been thinking a lot about the atonement this week. It is the center of our message and it is the most important part of the plan of salvation. I was thinking that if it is so important, I bet it can be applied to every aspect of our lives and especially every aspect of missionary work. So I started to try to apply the doctrine of the atonement in the little things that happen every day, and then the most amazing thing happened. We were in between appointments for a few minutes so we decided to contact the houses around our next appointment.

The people here are usually really nice and they don’t really yell or get super mad when you knock on their door. They usually just say they don’t have any time right now but thank you. But this one house we knocked on, this boy opened the door. We asked if his mom was home and he ran and grabbed her. Then she came stomping to the front door and yelled at us to go away as she slammed the door in our face. I was so excited because I had heard stories of this happening to missionaries and it was the first time it happened to me so I was secretly super pumped! But then I was thinking about her, and I was thinking about the atonement. I was thinking about how God loves her just as much as He loves everyone else.

A scripture popped into my head. D&C 18:10. "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God". I was thinking of how much is one soul REALLY worth. It’s something that we can’t comprehend, but if she was the only person in the world, if she was the only one that was sent down to earth, Jesus Christ would go through EVERYTHING he went through, just for her. He would do it all over again just for this one woman. He would suffer and die for her. That means that the price of her life is his. She is worth the life of a God.

Woah this hit me so hard. Every single person is worth the life of a God. Then I looked around and all of a sudden everyone I saw was wearing white, but not the white baptism clothes, the white you see in the temple. And then I had this overwhelming desire to just run up to everyone and cry with them and help them understand who they really are and help them see the light of the gospel. 

Then I realized, do I treat everyone like I should treat someone who is worth the life of a God? Do we treat them with the love we would treat someone that precious? Everyone around you. The driver in the car in front of you, the cashier, the waiter, the person next to you at school, or in the street, your cousins and friends, your brothers and sisters, your parents. YOU. Are you living your life the way God would? I know that we don’t understand what everyone is going through. I know that if we understood what they were going through, we wouldn’t take a second thought to forgive them. Every single person is priceless. Every single person is a child of God. 

I am so grateful for this eye opening and heart opening experience. I hope that this week you can remember to treat everyone the way you would treat the Savior. Ah this gospel is perfect and I LOVE Heavenly Father and His perfect love for all of His children. 

I love you!!

Hermana Gardanier

 Training with the Mission President.

Picture I found on the Mission blog

Here is a paragraph from the Mission President's wife about the missionaries currently serving in Rancagua. She posted this May 15, 2016

Right now we have 242 missionaries, or we will again after Tuesday when 27 arrive.  181 are elders and we have 62 sisters, which is way down from our peak when we had 104 sisters. Missionaries come from Argentina-8, Bolivia-1, Brazil-10, Chile-11, Colombia-7, Ecuador-4, El Salvador-1, Guatemala-3, Korea-1, Mexico-9, Nicaragua-1, Panama-2, Paraguay-2, Peru-30, Spain-3 and Uruguay-4.  Utah, of course is well represented as is Idaho.  We have 11 from Arizona-the same as from Chile plus three more who will arrive on Tuesday.