I cant tell you how much i missed you all this chrismas time. but its something i dont regret because i know like you do, that i´m in the place our loving heavenly father wants me to be. i wanted to appoligize about how the phone call went down, i want to talk a lot long, but thats just how it goes. sorry about cutting everybody off. i love you all so much, your support means more then you know. tell ryan good luck, and that he is perfect for the mission, tell him also that corey jackson got here the other week and is doing awesome, he actully turned out to be my Zone leader in the mtc. i was wondering if you get aaron and garrisons mail address for me again. Thanks for everything that you have done for me, and the examples you all set.

Les Quiero
Elder Gardner

Dad, i wanted to appoligize to you for how the phone call went down. i felt so ungreatful after we talked. you mean everything to me, you have always been the best for me. i love you so much, and i appreciate all that you do for our family. i know ive alread shared this with you but it has been on my mind again these last couple days. its Elder hollands talk, a highpriest of good things to come, or something like that. i reread this talk over last night and i want to reshare a part of that talk.(highly recommed a reread).

Some blessing come soon, some come late, and some dont come until heaven but for those who embrace the gospel of jesus christ, they come.
Dont give up, boy. dont you quite. you keep trying. there is help and happiness ahead. you keep your chin up. it will be allright in the end. trust god. and believe in good things to come.

i dont know if you remeber the blessing me and evan gave you before i left. but the words from that blessings have been in my head these last couple of days. "there is light at the end of the tunnel". Dad i know that is true, with every thing i feel. I love you. please let me know if there is anything i can do for you.

LOve your son
Elder Gardner

Hola de Tepot

That is insane about andrew, how are they doing? nothing happened to them, not a scratch? so i haven{t recieved those pictures yet not sure whats going on. but i have recieved the dear elders, please keep sending those through dear elder, i love to hear form those guys. i know ive asked like a hundred time, but could you get me garrisons and aarons letter address once more. so for christmas i can either call on the 24 or the 25, im not sure what works for you guys, but i was kind of feeling like like christmas day would be better, its tradition, but if that doesn{t work we can do the 24. there is a family here that is going to let us use their phone, i guess they have a phone plan that they can talk to the estados unidos for free. should i still use the phone card? ask me about this family when i call.

well this has been i feel a monumentous week for me. last week was the last week of transfers, it turns out i staying in tepo with elder rosales for another transfer. im excited. this past week i dont know why but i had a poor attitude and i could get out of it. it was crazy but i decieded to flip the switch and be happy and its made all the differnce. i read two talks that put it all into perspective for me. Come what may and love it" Elder Worthlin, and finging joy in the journey" Thomas s monson. i not sure what happend but the mision is so much easier when your happy. we have beeen teaching this selene for three weeks and she has a testimony about joshep smith and the book of mormon but her only hold up was she didn{t beleive in thomas s monson. crazy i know. we kept asking her to explain her self but she just kept telling us its jsut that "es encreible". ive though alot about that. that right this gospel the knowlege that we have the prophet that leader are church today, "es encreible". we have no reason to be in a bad mood or to be angry, or feel we have been treated unfairly. we have this knowelge that god lives and that he has a plan for us. nothing else matters.. i love you all

Elder GArdner

Things are still going here in mexico. i´m sorry i dont have a lot of time, and every thing seams insignificant to the message i want to share with you.
all i can say is that i´m still going through the pains of learning a language and that i still have many lessons to learn. I came across this talk by elder Jeffery r. holland intitled "the ministry of angles" nov. 2008. I want to share this snip it from that talk,
"I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the lord has said he would fight our battles, our children´s battles, and the battles of our children´s children. and what do we do to merit such a defense? we are to search difilently, pray always, and be beiliving. then all things shall work together for our good, if we walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith we have covenanted. the latter days are not a time to fear or tremble they are a time to be beleiving and remember our covenants. I want to recommend this talk to you. God loves us. we go through trials, but we do not go through them alone. with faith in our heveanly father we will have miracles in our lives. "God never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face" i love you all so much and want you to know that things are going to work out. we are on the right team. keep the faith, be beleiving, and know that he loves you.
Thanks for every thing
Elder Gardner

"the simple secret is this put your trust in the lord, do your best, then leave the rest to him" joseph b worthlin

Hola de Tepotzotlan

Sorry, i didnt write yesterday. we had to go to imagration and sign some papers. it was a 4 hour deal, but all i needed to do is sign a paper and give them my finger print. kind of crazy but i was awesome to see all the elders that i came out with.

I cant tell you how crazy that is to think that you guys have that much snow when it is a warm 70. how was thanksgiving? thursday was hard for me, i kept thinking about you guys and what you all were doing. i never knew how much i loved thanksgiving until i didnt have one. one of the members here took us out to dominos and there just so happened to be a football game going on the tv. what a tender mercy. Everybody was realy interested to know what americans did on the dia de accion de gracias. i loved telling what we do, and why we do it, it was fun.
when we got to church on domingo the obispo came up to me and asked me if i could talk in sacramet, he told me he was going to ask me on thursday but he forgot. I had no clue what i was doing, im not sure how the talk went in spanish, but in my head it sounded good in english. i was an awesome expirence for me, even though i pretty sure nobody knew what i was talking about.
mom you asked last week if there was anything i needed for christmas. there were just a couple things i was thinking about. i was wondering if you could ask the boys if they would be willing to donate some of their pongs. there is a kid down here who loves them but all the ones he has are really lame. i was thinking he needed a least two of the metal ones and how every many others. if they dont want to its not a big deal. the other thing was some sanitation gel, the stuff that drys in your hands. also some emergen-C they dont have it down here. and im always in need of more ties. this is just a thought but if you sent a voice recorder i would record my e mails and sent it via email, so that i could save time. these are all wants and in no way needs.

i sorry to hear about the job, not sure if this helps but its been on my mind.
read this talk, its a beauty. Pres jamesEfaust "the healing power of forivness"

"every calamity that can come unto mortal beings will ve suffered to come unto the few, to prepare the lord.... every trial and expirence you have passed through is nessesary for your salvation."

"not willing to forgive is like drinking the poisen and hoping the other person will die." -John bytheway

heavenly fathers message for me was loud and clear this week for me. "extending forgivness is a precondition to receiving forgivenss". there is so much that i need to be forgiven for, why can i not forgive others. there is nothing huge that i need to forgive someone for like in fausts talk, but ive been thinking just about the little things. not sure exaclty why i shared that with you, but its been someting that i{ve been working on.
I love you all,
Elder Gardner

Hello from Mexico

Well let me give just a little recap of some of the stuff that this week had to offer. last tuesday we had Cricket tacos, with flaming slabs of boogers, you might hear some people call it chicharron with salsa verde (it was as bad as it sounds). we taught a guy while he was taking a shower, piled into a bus that was 10X over its suggested capacity, and 3X over its actually physically possible (just an every day occurance for these people) we would stop at every bus stop and see like 10 people waiting for the bus, and every time i would think in my head your not all going to fit. but to my amazment every time they would just keep packing it in. these people are crazy over hear, every one is bundled up for the ice age. I doubt its as cold in Utah as people think it is here. and there i am this skinny white pole walking around everywhere with my short sleave on sweating. we are trying to endure the bitter cold of 70 degrees. when and if you stop recieving these lists of things that happen, then you´ll know that i´ve overcome the culture shock. thes people are crazy but i love em!

Dang, i love you all so much, and am trying to cope with the idea that i won´t be having thanksgiving this week. so i though since i´m not going to have the chance to say what i´m gratful for i´ll do so now...

Im most gratefull for the wonderful, hard, long, uneasy trials that we all have to go through. i´m grateful for this chance i have to learn and to grow, and evern though some times i get off track i always have the ability to find the straight and narrow again. im gratful for the knowlege that my family has the true knowlege of the the gospel of jesus christ, and to know that even though that we have to endure, in the end will are all going to have the greastest blessing of all, eternal life with my family. I´m grateful for all of you and the support you give me, and for all the love you have. Í love you all so much

Elder Gardner

God cares he always has and he always will

Hello from Tepotzotlan

So i´m pretty much in mexico city, but not techniquly. The city is called Tepotzotlan, but the zone i´m in is called Cuautitlan, another city. its pretty cool place, down town Tepo has this huge anciant catholic cathidrol.(o boy my english skills are leaving me, please forgive the spelling). every sunday the whole town has a huge party party in down town Tepo, its pretty cool but stinks that its on sundays. I wonder if marcs heard of this area. I´m companions with Elder Rosales R. he´s from torion, he wants to learn english, so we trade of learning new words each day. he´s super patient with me, and how long it takes me to talk.
Its been a very intresting week for me, full of highs and lows. This work is hard, and it doesn´t help that i can´t communicate, but it all clicked for this week. last sabado we were walking around and visited a contact from the previous day. they had no time to talk to us, because they were making these obleas for the dad´s work. we asked if we could help and the padres gladly accepted. after that we walk half way down the street and there was a less active family filling in their house with dirt, we ask if we could help and they glady accepted. we helped them for maybe an hour and a half. this inactive family has not been to church for something like 5 or 6 weeks, because of something that happened with the past missionaries. the change that came over this family from when we started to help them till we we finished was a miracle. the mom was close to tears when we left, because of what we did. as much as these families apreciated the help, i think i got more out of it then they did. in a week that at times was hard, after these acts of service i was filled with so much love, excitment, and wanting to do better and more. i can´t tell you how much that has changed the way i look at the mission, trials, and life. I felt as though my comp. and me were respectively Robin hood and little John. Just going around helping those in need, jumping fences, people treating us like outlaws. well, this analogy sounded better in my head.
I´m glad to hear every one is doing good. i´m trying not to think about thanksgiving, because i found out it doesn´t exsist down here. i´m going to miss being with you guys on turkey day.

I read this quote and it effected my quite a bit
pres. hinkley said "Keep trying, Be beileving. Be happy. don´t get discouraged. things will work out!
I love you all so much and hope you are happy.

Love
Elder Gardner
Ps. we only allowed to only write one email to our family. let every one know that i enjoy there letters so, much and i love to hear from them, but that i can´t respond to them directly, i´ll try to do so through these letters. don´t stop writing though.

Ok, this place is crazy let me give you a little taste of what these last couple days have had. I´ve eat worms and crickets. i´ve almost died every time i´m in a moving vehicle(don´t worry thats normal), i´ve been chased by dogs, i wash myself with a cup each morrnig, i have to manually flush the toilets(ussally takes about 45 min), i´ve helped a family pack their whole house up in a small pick u(i´ve sent pics, it´s pretty crazy). played pongs with the niños, and talked with a guy named capi (capi king hhhhmmm). this place is like nothing i´ve expirecned before, but o, boy do i love it.

elder roslaes is my comp and he speaks no english, its been interesting, but not as bad as i thought. im learning fast. he only has 1 month on me, he´s a stud.

every time i read your guys letters, I always find myself crying. its because what you all mean to me. i see you going through challeges and different obsticles, and its like none of that matters because of who we are. we are all disicple of jesus christ, and it is his church that we are apart of. when we do are part the storms will pass and we will be stronger then we were before. we all have things to learn. i miss you all so much, but i´m not home sick. thanks for the prayers, i need them. I hope you know that I do the same for each of you daily. God is in control. keep reading. keep praying keep going. keep moving.

with all i got
Elder Gardner

Ok, i'm here in mexico, and it is crazy. we took about a hour bus ride to the mission home, and it was the crazy ride of my life. i'm definatly not in utah any more. I'm scarded out of my mind, cause my comp is a native and speaks no english. these next weeks are going to be insane. it's going to be awesome. here is a pic with me and pres. and sis. I love you all. god bless

Elder Gardner

well all the rumors are true, i'm in living at the MTC for my secound time. Wednesday was really crazy, I started off with early going to the Las Vegas Temple which was amazing, and then i had to catch a flight to salt lake. when we walk out of the airport it was like a huge reunion. All of the mexico visa waiter were standing on the curb waiting for the bus to pick us up. it was awesome to see all of my MTC Mexican again. we sat at the airport for a couple of hours waiting for everybodies planes to come in. It was cool at first to hear about everybodies missions but, about after the first half hour it got really old. I understand now why people get tired of hearing, "Well, in my mission we did this...". If you can only imagine 30 greenie missionaries who just got a little taste of the field, and you slam all of them together. these past coulple of days it has been better but man i was so sick of hearing from these missionaries and how we think we are cool because we've been out of the mtc. I don't know, i guess its a good thing to be so excited, but we still have no clue what we're doing. Its been intersting being back here, we've been able to go back and see our old teachers, and for some reason i can understand them so much better. I am back with my old MTC comp, elder pound, not sure how that happened but I was happy cause he is realy good about helping me with spanish. he told me that my spanish was a lot better, so i guess there is process being made. we went to the mexican consulate yesterday, and signed our promisos. they told us that they should process them by monday. but i still don't know excatly when i'm leaving, but we think its going to be this early this next week. after our visit to the consulate it made me very anxious. I've been studying hard to use this time to prepare as best i can before we leave.

i've been thinking a lot about 1 Neph 3:7 these last couple of days.
"...I will go and do the things which the lord hath commanded, for i know that the lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."
He has always provided a way, and he will always provide a way. in a time when we need comfort to know that things will all work out, we can kown that if we are completle obiedient the lord WILL provide a way. some blessing come soon, some come late, and some don't come till heaven, but for those who trust god they come.

I love you all so much and can't wait for the tiem i wright you from mexico. god speed

Elder Gardner

o yeah i've seen a bunch of people here at the mtc, a lot of kids from high school, byu i, and boise. I saw trent burch the other day, he seem to be doing great, he's excited to leave in a couple of weeks for chile. tell his mom that he's doing great. I also saw hermana Mckenna, it was really crazy cause she looked so fimillar, and then when i saw her name tage i knew exactly who it was. we talked for a little bit, it was awesome to see her.

Hola from Las Vegas for the last time,
I love you all so much I don't have a lot of time since i'm packing, because i have a flight that i want to catch to Salt Lake. it finaly came, i've been going crazy!! i'm so pumped, but ready to pee my pants at the same time. i have a meeeting with the mexican consolate in salt lake on thursday. I'm headed back to the MTC, can't wait to get some of that food again. I'm going to the temple at 700 tomorrow mournig then to pres. house at 1000, then my flight leaves at 1207. its not officail yet but you might be hearing from me tomorrow mourning, if not i'll wright you next week with more details. it's going to be weird driving by american fork on the way to the mtc. its crazy, but life is good and i'm excited for what ahead. I'm a little sad to leave this place, I've met a lot of people whom i'll have to come back and visit. i love you all. Keep smiling!

Love
Elder GArdner

Hola from Las Vegas

Alright i getting very concered of the situaltion i'm in right now. I'm growing rapidly!! and i'm not talking about my height. I first recognized the problem when we were at a members house the other night and the hermana asked me how much weight i'd gained. she told me that i don't look like the same bean poll i was when i got here. I thought things were going alright, but after that comment i've been wieghing myself in the mournings. lets just stay i came out wieghing 190 lbs. i'm now clocking in at a pugey 210. 20 flipp'n pounds. the scary thing is I can't stop it, we at least have 2 meals every night at least. and you know how mexican food is, greasy. I'm hoping that when i get to mexico that because we will be walking that i can loose some wieght. i think its the sitting in the car all day that kills me. anyways about the mexcio visa thing, i know absolutly nothing. i heard a rumor that will be out by the end of october, but november is coming up quick. One of the elders that i flew out hear with is now living in the same apartment as us. we've had many rants about how we can't wait to leave, and how bad it stinks to be a visa waiter. but it hit me hard the other day, if i never got my visa would and was reassigned to vegas would i stay out here. it kind of made me think of why i came out here. i didn't come on my misson to go to mexico i came out here cause i want to serve, and i want to do my part and invite others to come unto christ, regarlesss of where i'm at. I compare my misson and this situation to the Zions camp march. god commanded them to go to missouri and redeem zion only to turn around once they got there. i've read a couple of things on zions camp, and it talks about how that was a time to sort out the people who dedicated to being obeitdant and following god, and those who were out there for them selfs. I come to the conclusion that even though i want to go to mexico so badly, i'm out here to be obeidant and to serve where i'm called, and for the time being i've been called to serve in the Las Vegas West mission. I have no doubt if god wanted me in mexico he would send me there, he has power to get my visa.

I want to share some thing that i was studying this mournig. this is a talk from pres. uchtdorf back in 2007 called, "have we not reason to rejoice"

My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. He is the Son of the living God. He has promised:“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28
).“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee” (3 Nephi 22:10
). “I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (3 Nephi 22:8
).My dear friends, the Savior heals the broken heart and binds up your wounds (see Psalm 147:3
). Whatever your challenges may be, wherever you live on this earth, your faithful membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the divine powers of the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless you to endure joyfully to the end.Of this I bear witness with all my heart and mind in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."
this talk is based off one of my favorite scriptures Alma 26:35. Even though times are difficult, even though the world that we live in is fulll of hatred, and dirt. we have have reason to rejoice, think of what this gospel means to you, and the knowlege we have of the eterneral happiness we are promised if we endure. Mom I love you, and i hurt to know that the family is going through a hard time, but i rejoice because i know that it will be all right in the end. I know god Loves us, He understands our struggles. thank you for who you are and the example you are to me.
I love you all so much
Elder Gardner

It has been a heart churning week. we had mission confernce on monday, elder Kevin W. Pierson of they 70 spoke to us. I have never seen or felt a general authority thrash missionaries so hard before. it was very neccesary, and has helped my realign my life. boy did he ripe into us. I love that man, the guidance he gave us under the direction of the spirt has changed my life. i wish you all could have been there. I have a very specific message that i want to share with you that i've been thinking about all week. the first pricicle we try to teach is that god is our loving heavenly father. He is our Loving Heavenly Father. when we can get people to understand this principle every thing else will come. many people that we talk to say "if god loves us than why does he let us suffer". my heart burns when i hear this cause i know that they aren't understanding. He loves us so much that he gives us these challeges, so that we can become better. he know our potential, he konws how much happiness we can have. I know that everything that our family is going through, is not because god doesn't care about us, its because he loves us. he has plans for all of us, we have to show him we are obiedient. I read a talk by elder maxwell back in 1999, its called something like Laman and lemuel. please check it out. I know that we have a Father in Heaven, his power is above all others. he loves you, he knows you and your challenges, and he has given us every thing we need to succeed. I love you all so much, and I miss you. I hope all is well

With everything i've got
Elder Gardner

thanks for the package i've not recieved it yet but i'll let you know. thanks so much
- Show quoted text -

Hello from Vegas

OK, i'm sorry about not sending pics, but you have to understand that i don't have a lot, but i'll send you some next week. If i send you pics you've got to send me some, i want to see whats going down with everybody (I'm still waiting to see marcs new ride).
speaking of seeing home, i've seen a lot this weekend. we watched this movie about the history of the pioneers, and how they settled in salt lake. at the end of it they were showing all these modern pictures of satl lake and the whole valley. I thought i saw grandmas house. and then during priesthood session i hear that the mtc choir is singing, followed by seeing so many people that i know. during all the songs, when the camera was showing the choir, i couldn't help but point out all of the people i knew, "that kid is in my ward, thats one of my best firends from high school, and that my brother-in-law." it was awesome to see MIke Morris, Josh Stewart, and Drew. I was a little disappointed, it would have been awesome to be there singing with all those missionaries. Between the movie and conference and the letters you forwarded from all my firends, i started to have this realy weird feeling. my compaion later diagnosed me with a small case of trunkiness, its not to bad though, i doing a lot better know. that was really the first time i had expirenced it.
I don't think i've every enjoyed conference so much, it was very much needed though. I was reliefied to find out that we were watching it in english. we went over to a members house and watched all 4 session. they treated us really well, with lazy boys to sit in and bottomless food. I tried to enjoy it as much as i could cause i'm pretty sure that that isn't going to happen down in mexico. it still wasn't as comfortable as waking up to soggy bottom biscuits and working on that yarn cat with the girls during the sessions. you talked a little bit about the talks that you enjoyed, I too can't wait for the ensign to come out and reread all of the talks. I sorry to say mom, that you missed out on the priesthood session though, it was amazing.
Well, I been here in Vegas for a whole transfer. last saturday we got transfer calls and to no surprise i'm staying in redrock. i'm staying with elder sullivan, and Elder Bello is headed up to Tahoe. And then we are going to get an illegal elder on tuesday. staying in the three some. to be honest i'm ready to move on, i'm tired of being the "third wheel". i'm ready to actually start leaning spanish. its tough, but i guess there are still lessons to be learned here in the desert. thanks for your prayers, don't worry about the visa it will all work out.
Sorry again about the pics, but if you send the razor i promise a some pics next week. Mom i need you to do something else for me, i've been thinking resently about the Hegermans and especialy Jack. could you give sis. Hegerman a call and see how they are doing, and let me know. thanks
I learned alot this weekend and many of my questions and prayers were answered. for me the overall message was we have to follow the prophet and the leaders of the church. it seems to always come back to obiediance. i can't wait to go through all of the talks agian in the ensign.

I love you all. thanks for everything

Elder Gardner

I am so sorry about last week, lets just say it was an expirence that was really lame, but i learned from it. I can't wait till the whole fam is sitting down to a sunday dinner and then the old mission conversatoin comes up, then me and mark will start speaking in spanish and everybody will get mad at us cause they can't understand. I'm so ready for conference again, not sure if i have to watch it in spanish. if i do then its going to be a long week end. i managed to stay awake through church yesterday, becasue i was able to understand what was going on. I can't understand every thing but just enogh to understand what they are talking about. its exciting in that way, but then when it come to speaking i'm done. It is a struggle, its hard when we are at church cause i want to talk to everybody, but its hard for me to respond. I working on, and it will come, but it could be awhile. tell andrew to do everything he can to apply, He will love it down there. BYUIdaho is a very special place, and somthing that is hard to understand untill you are actually there. tell him i could help him get a job to if he needs one.
have you seen that cord to my shaver i need it desperatly. cause im getting pretty hairy, nah jk but could you look for that for me? thanks

We tracked into a less acitve member last week, and was able to vist her. she has been a member of the church all her life. she had done everything that she needed to. she was married in the temple and has three kids. she told us she is going through a temple divorce right now. she had been married to her husband for 12 years, and said she was never happy the whole time. she now is less acitve member, doesn't wear her garments, works at a bar, and is moving to conneticut with her boyfriend. she told us "I've never been so happy in my life". It blew me away to hear how a life can change so drastically. How did that happen? no quite sure how the story will end for her and her kids, or even how it strarted, but all I know is that she stop doing the little things. she stop reading, then praying, then going to church. she is happy right now, but how will it end for her.
Mom we can't stop, we can't let go of that rod. we can't let those we love let go. the consiquences are eternal. I love you and dad so much, I love our family so much. We can't stop being obiedient.

sorry about last week, I love you all
Elder Tyler Gardner

I can't remember what cold weather feels like. It is so hot here, but its getting better we only peak at 110 these days. yeah no word on the visa thing, they said that as soon as they have everything then i will be out of here the next day.
Well i'm expierencing what i think to be culture shock. I going to be honest, I'm not always super psyched about playing soccer all the time, I love the food, but why does it always have to be the same stuff (and stop putting it on my plate when i told you i like it, but i don't want any more), and the biggest thing why are people trying to comunicate with these wierd noises (i think they call it spanish). its frusterating, but at the same time I love these people so much. we ate with a family last night and i don't now if i've every seen a family that every acts they way they did. they laugh and have fun, but the whole time you know that they love everybody, and then they know exaclty why they are happy. these people have such a stong love for their family that its like no matter what happens its ok, because they have their family and they have the gospel in thier lives.
I still learning and I feel like an idoit a lot of times, but there is no doubt that this knowlege that we have of the gospel is critical to our happiness.
I love you so much, keep reading, keep praying, he is aware of your situation, you are not alone.

with everything i've got
Elder Gardner

Yeah that letter last week was kind of crazy, i look back at just last week and decided i'm going to have a lot of amazing experience and that i'm not going to be able to put them into emails, cuase that took forever. its just that the things that are happening over here in vegas are incredible. I love being apart of this work.
Good luck with your classes, you've got to recognize that you have one of the best math tutors ever and he knows everything. Use him as much as you can, and tell him how much you apprecitae him. thats something i wish i would have done more of when he helped me.
That is so sad that Britt and Vance, and Aussy. while i was reading that i was getting sad, and i'm not even there. I'm sure that you'll find plenty of oppourtunites to go visit though.
How come Life back home is still moving along, and things are changing so much. It feels like marc just barrley came home and now he's out. and andrew is home now, tell that kid to talk to me. I'm excited for annie being in student counsel she is going to have an awesome time, and everybody will love her and her energetic, and fun personality. Emily is scaring me she is growing up way to fast. she is such a great example to everyone she is around I hope she does well. Whats going on with Evan and Megan? I need to email them, i'll do that next week. its crazy how much the family is changing in such a short amount of time, but thats good. We've got to be able to Find joy in our journey and help each other out.
What a hard thing the Smiths are going through right now. I can't imagine how that would be if that was you mom. Heavenly Father pushes us, and some times we don't think that we can handle it, but i have a testimony that I know he can. He loves us, and that has become more and more apparent to me since being out here.
I have another talk that i want you to read and apply. we have been working with a lot of less acitve members and they all are lacking the same things. doing the small things(reading, praying, going to church) there is power in these things when we are obiedient.
check this talk out.
Elder Bednar May 2010 "watching with all persereverce"
tell me what you think.

I love you guys

Elder gardner

August 4, 2010

Dear family
so, about me shipping out. that probably won't happen anytime soon. last week we recieved our travel plans and they told us that we are staying here, they don't have our visas yet. it's crazy right now because this time of year when the mtc has its most missionaries, so I’ve heard that because of all the mexico bound missionaries not being able to leave that the MTC is way over capacity. I don't understand why they don't just ship us out somewhere state side for right now but who knows. i still have to go to the consolate and sign papers, and i still have not done that. they said that after you sign those papers it takes about 10 days for you to get your travel plans. so its just a waiting game, i will let you know when i go and sign those papers cause that will be the best sign of when i'll leave. but for right now i happy with where i'm at, i feel like i need to absorb as much as i can from the mtc as i can.

yeah so i sprained my right ankle really bad playing soccer, i think it was the same exact injury that happened to my left foot playing ball. but its healing a lot faster, the mtc is really parinoid about injuries (for good reason) and they take good care of me. yeah i forgot to tell you about seeing Marcus is was crazy, i went up to him and it took him a little bit to recognize who i was but he did and it was fun to talk with him and reminis of our old days. he took off for spain on monday.

I'm pretty sure i saw daran durdan too, but have not talk with him yet. I'm going to write you guys a letter today, and tell you more. thanks for the package it was great, i think i'm going to like that skin care stuff. thanks for every thing.

I love you all
Elder T Gardner