January 30, 2011

O mother dearest,

I love to hear from you each week.  I cant tell you how much I've appreciated hearing each week from you and hearing the report on the family.  It’s crazy to think that the whole family hasn't been together for 8 years,  is that right?  Anyways, a long time. 

We are seeing this ward grow little by little each week.  Our investigators pool consists of 5 couples who are not married.  We have a lot of work to do.  We found a lady on Saturday, we were looking for some menos acitvos, but come to find out that the menos acitvos had moved.  Instead of finding the family we were looking for we found Esperanza.  She is a single mom with 2 boys.  She didn't have any time to talk to us because she was cleaning but told us she was interested in talking with us.  She has a friend in the states that has talked about the church with her.  We convinced her to let us in to just say a prayer.  After the prayer we helped her clean her house.  She went to church yesterday and loved it.  The other missionaries had  a baptism after wards and esperanza was super interested in seeing it.   After the baptism we explained the importance of the baptism and that her family can be together forever.  She started to cry.  In the relief society they were talking about genealogy and food storage.  Esperanza was taken back by all the things the church is teaching.  We have a lesson with her today and we’ll see what she really thought.  We are so blessed to be members of this church. ¡la iglesia es verdadero! ¡no?  

Thanks for sending the shirts. I’ll work them hard for the last 5 months.  Tell the ward i love them, and that I can’t wait to see everybody.  Thanks for everything.  I love you tons.

Elder Gardner

January 23, 2011

That's awesome news about Chase, is he going English or Spanish?  That would be cool to talk to chase before he enters the MTC.

We just got back from the tiangis (flea market)  and I bought 3 brand new ties for 9 bucks. They are pretty sweet.   I found a tie that was exactly the same as one Elder Davidson has.  The difference is i spend 30 pesos and he spent 100 bucks.  O yeah! Got to love the Mexican bargain shopping. 

One of the pics is of me with a cocodrilo, a straight up crocodile in my hands.  I was feeling a lot like Steve Irwin.  If it looks like I'm scared out of my mind, it’s because I am (so i guess not exactly like Steve Irwin)  my comp held it first, and then i pick it up and the little girl who was there started to tell me when he was in my hands that he was getting really angry, because he started to turn his head around and take a licking of my skin.  He was little, but he is a crocodile none the less.

The other pic is elder Castro, hna juana, hna. mariana, and me, with Beti on her big day.  This is the same Beti that was screaming amen in the sacrament meeting three weeks ago.  She has come a long way and has a strong testimony of the church.  When we passed by for her to go to the baptism, she was feeling super happy,and said, "All morning I've been hearing angels singing. Is that how you guys always feel?”  It was awesome.  It makes walking up these hills every day worth it.

I love you, hope all is well.  keep smiling, buckle up, CTR

Con Amor

Elder Gardner

January 16, 2012

Dear Mom

We had a good week.  Our small broken down ward is growing each week.  We easily tripled our numbers this week from the first week.  We have been working a lot with the members, especially the less actives.  We have found so many awesome potential family's that are inactives.  The reason for them all is that they have been offended by someone in the ward, particularly the last bishop.  The majority of these people are sealed in the temple and ex-missionaries.  How is it that families with such strong testimonies are falling?  When they would tell us some of the things that happened with the last bishop and other leaders here, I have to ask, How is it that we have such horrible leaders, especially in the Church of Jesus Christ?  I felt like our leaders were the modern day Gadianton Robbers.  ¡no puede ser!  I'm not sure how much the stories we heard from the less actives are true or exaggerated, but even if they are true these families are still going to have to answer to God for not going to church.  But then it all became so clear.  We asked each one of these families, “When was the last time you participated in the sacrament?  When was the last time you read in the Book of Mormon? When was the last time you prayed?”  The answer was unsurprisingly the same.  They would always get really quiet, and then tell us that it had been a long time.  This is exactly what Alma taught in his famous talk about faith.  If we don't nurture the seed, or in this case, the tree, the roots that once were strong, will die.  Our faith is very delicate and if it is not nourished daily by scripture study, by prayer, or weekly by the sacrament, THE ROOTS WILL DIE.  Then it is only a matter of time before the winds start to blow and that big old tree comes destructively to the ground. 

This is were we started with the less actives. First helping them realize all the blessings they are missing out on, and then that they have to start nurturing their seeds of faith.  I think the one thing that I've learned the most on my mission is this;  We can not cease to read, to pray, to partake of the sacrament, or we will fall.  We are all in danger of the temptations of Satan, and if we let Satan take the wheel for only a second he will steer us off the cliff.  What every you do, keep reading, keep praying, and keep going to church.  Mom, the most important thing you can teach those girls is to start habits that will change their lives. Help them to feel the power of prayer. Help them feel the spirit of the Book of Mormon, and help them understand the protection we can receive from going to church every Sunday.  If they understand this, they will never fall.  I know this church is true.  God loves us and He will support us in our afflictions, if we have the faith to do what He asks.  Consistency is the key to salvation.  I love you so much, i hope all is good in the land.  Keep your chin up. The day dawn is breaking.

con mucho amor

Elder Gardner  

January 9, 2012

Wow,(Amen)

Mom this Work is incredible,(amen) I can’t tell you how many times I have felt that feeling of anxiousness as I am about share the gospel. (amen) Then it gets even more crazy when you start to feel the prompting from the spirit.(amen)  But something that I've learned here is when the spirit directs, DO IT!!  Mom we have a lot of work to do with our family in bringing them to the truth.  Pray for the opportunity to share the gospel.  God will provide these chances, then trust in the spirit to fill your mouth with the words to say.  Then thank God for the chance to serve, and ask what more you can do.  We can’t let anyone be left behind.(amen)    

So we found a lady named Beti, this past week and she is super(amen) Christian(amen). But she listened to us and felt the spirit and is super excited for her Baptism in 3 weeks.  We brought her to church yesterday, and the whole ward had an interesting experience with Beti.  So it was fast and testimony meeting, and beti was really feeling good and little bit like she was in her Christian church, because after every sentence she would shout AMEN!!!  When she really like what she heard the shout was even louder with a “Gloria, Hallelujah!” "diga me otro vez hermana".  After the first couple of minutes I leaned over and asked her if she remembered what we had taught her about being reverent during the prayer, she said she remembered.  I need to have the same reverence when we are in the church.  She shook her head and told me she understood.  She quieted for a few seconds and then gradually the “amens” came back.  She had a great time at church. (amen)  I've tried to give you a taste of what it was like yesterday with all the “amens”. 

We are working a lot with the less actives and we found a family yesterday.  They used to be so strong but for a few chismes and problems with money with the church the mom decided to stop going.  The kids are awesome and you can tell they are anxious to get back to the church.  The dad isn't a member and he told us yesterday he wants to get baptized, but that he can’t go if his wife doesn't go.  So we were working hard with the wife to get her over the problem she has.  She finally told us the story of why she isn't going and it was a long and very complicated story.  I was thinking to my self, "I'm only 20 years old i have no clue what this lady is going through."  I then remembered a quote from the PMG.  "La mejor ayuda para todos las personas es que aceptan y vivan el evangelio."  We had no clue what the solution was for this lady but what we did know that living the gospel will help her find it.  The answer to all our promblems is to live the Gospel.  We don't know all the answers, but God does.  The church is true.  I hope all  is well in Happy Valley.  Keep smiling.  te quiero tantisimo

Con mucho amor

Elder Gardner

January 2, 2012

Hola Familia,

First Week in La Colmena.  You would not believe this place.  It is straight hills.   But these aren't your every day rolling hills, these are straight up mountains.  The last elder that was here before me lost 30 kilos.  My comp has lost 5.  Looks like I'm going to have some knarly calves when I get back.  So I'm in the barrio Colmena and this is a legendary area.  I know a lot of elders who have had a lot of success here, but something went wrong and the ward took a tank.  Yesterday we had 20 people in church and 7 of them were President Call and his family.   Pres. came to talk to us about what is going on with this area.  He told elder Castro and me that he put us here to lift the ward out of the pits and back to legendary.  My comp has 2 changes left on the mission, and I will die 2 changes after him in this area.  President pretty much told me that I will be here the rest of my mission and that I will kill off elder Castro.  He told us specifically that he wants us to establish the area, and then once Castro is gone he will put me back to training.  So it looks like I’ll have one more son and this one will give me the dagger to the heart, and kill me off.  I was super surprised, but stoked for this new trail that I have to revive La Colmena to what it was.  I feel like this is the biggest challenge that I've had on the mission, I feel like my whole mission God was preparing me for this area. 

I love you all so much and hope all is super awesome.  God loves our family and in this new year we will again see evidence of this.  God has made the Plan.  We as members of his church understand this plan.  If we do all that God has asked, He will keep his end of the bargain,  LA VIDA ETERNA.  I pray for you all each night, and know god will bless us in this new year. 

CTR

Keep smiling

Peace it easy

God Bless

Elder Gardner