Trio Triangle

Trio Triangle

Me, Hna Anderson, and Hna Hanson!

Hna Hanson, mi hija!!!

Yep, that's right - I'm trio training, but NOT with Hna Weyand! It was a little crazy how everything worked out in the Spanish world. Hna Cedeño is training one of the new sisters in Queen Creek - her trainees name is Hna Showalter - and Hna Anderson came up here to trio train with me! We're training Hna Hanson, who is just the sweetest person ever and I love her so much!! I also really love Hna Anderson and the three of us have been getting along great, which is such a miracle and a blessing! We're already great friends and love being around each other.  I was really worried about being in a trio, but I absolutely love it now!

Training's a little weird since Hna Anderson and I are BOTH trainers, but it's good practice in having unity for later when I'm married and I think we've been doing a great job of consulting together about how we think is best to approach things in order to help Hna Hanson the most.  I've been mostly taking the lead in the area, though, since neither of them really know it at all. It's a little crazy, too, because they split our area - Hna Anderson, Hna Hanson, and I have the south part of the branch and Hna Weyand and her greenie - Hna Fuimaono, who's from Samoa (but has lived in Utah for ten years) - are working in the northern end. They actually have all of the investigators that we were working with and most of the less actives, so the three of us are doing a lot of canvasing and contacting former investigators. We have the perfect excuse, though - there's an Easter Pageant being held at the Mesa Temple in just a couple weeks, and we've been using that as a way to talk to these people who previously dropped the missionaries. We've already seen miracles because of it, and have multiple appointments with people who said they never wanted to talk to missionaries again, which is super exciting!
We also met a few new potentials who said we could stop by, so we're working hard and have great hopes for this transfer!

 I'm praying a lot for help in overcoming my shortcomings and being positive, and have received so much guidance this week from reading the General Conference talks from last October. I can't wait for conference this weekend and know that I'm going to receive even more revelation!

Hna Hanson is really doing great. I love working with her, and she's motivated to improve. Her Spanish is SO much better than I was expecting and she's willing and eager to receive criticism. She was a bit quiet the first couple of days in lessons, but she's opening up and has had some incredible spiritual experiences in sharing messages with others where she was able to know that she was clearly being led by the spirit. Yesterday I put her in charge of our dinner message and asked her to prayerfully consider a scripture to share during her personal studies, and when she shared it at dinner the sister we were eating with started bawling and said it was exactly what she'd needed. I told Hna Hanson when we got in the car, "If you ever doubt your ability to be led by the Spirit, I want you to remember this." She was glowing and couldn't stop smiling, and even took the lead in knocking some doors last night! She's growing in her confidence, and it's wonderful to see! She has an incredible testimony and already has an AMAZING love for the people that we meet, and in her spare time thinks a lot about some of the struggles the less actives we've spoken to are going through and how we can help them address them. She's an inspiration to say the least!

Our trio's also a lot of fun because all three of us are writers, and we have many, MANY similar interests and preferences. There's a lot of smiling, joking, laughter, and just FUN. But we're also all motivated to help one another improve and to work hard, but we have fun while we're doing it! Hna Hanson is from Boise. Hna Anderson is from Utah, she came out the transfer before me and was trio trained herself by Hna Cedeño and another sister (Hna Shreve, she went home that transfer). She's hilarious, and a bit of a trouble maker, she's always trying to get us to laugh while we're eating haha. She's a very experienced missionary, too (about to hit her year mark) and we're both learning a lot from her. She's humble, though, as well, and willing to learn and change. She's also very good about keeping us on top of things - she makes sure I make my protein shakes in the morning and keep my food journal, and has told me that I'm not allowed to get sick again and that she needs me here :P All in all, I think the three of us are a great team.

We were able to see Luis this week, which was wonderful! I'm not sure if he's progressed as far as being ready to really act on the promptings he's received, but he's coming to the Easter Pageant with us and he now has two friends living with him from Mexico who are willing to listen to us when we come over, which we're looking forward to. Pray for him to feel that desire to really take those steps towards his salvation!

This week, when we were in companionship study, we sang "Cuentas tus bendiciones" ("Count Your Blessings") and I was really struck by the translation.
In English, the chorus says:
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your blessings; See what God hath done.
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your many blessings; See what God hath done.

But in Spanish, it's a little different:
Bendiciones, cuenta y verás, (Blessings, count and you will see)
bendiciones que recibirás; (Blessings that you will receive)
bendiciones, cuenta y verás (Blessings, count and you will see)
cuántas bendiciones de Jesús tendrás. (How many blessings from Jesus you will have.)

It was really interesting to me that when they were translating it they chose to say "will have" rather than the English version which talks about all that God "hath done". It got me thinking about hope (which we talked about a LOT in our companionship study this week) and how we can count and hope for all the blessings we've been promised in the scriptures and personally in our patriarchal blessings. How much we have to be thankful for!!!

So my new date for coming home is April 3rd, 2018. Thought you'd like to know :) That could shift around depending on if transfers get moved, but that's the current plan. So that's just a year from next Monday!

Love ya!
Hermana Garner