October 24, 2011

part of letter from Mom:

“Here is the deal.  I don't know if I told you or not but I am now in the Young Women's, I get to work with the MIA Maids

I am loving it and it is great fun to be in there with Emily.  We were talking to the girls today and we are wondering about doing a Young women trade where we could talk and get to know the Young women in your ward in Mexico.  Do you have a lot of Young women in your ward?  What do you think about us making some fun things to send to them?  I think it would be fun for the girls to see what it is like outside of Utah Valley.  Let us know if you think it would be a good idea or not.”

 

 

Mom,  that sounds like an awesome idea, but send me more ideas about what you want to do. ill talk to the Hermana about what she thinks.  next week send me exactly what you would like to do and ill get it started over here.  the president de las mujers jovens is awesome. please send more info.

well we worked this week and it was all set up for a beautiful Sunday, and then Sunday morning it all came crashing down. so get this, in the last two weeks we have had two recent converts and one lady who had a new fetcha for this Sunday just got up and moved, within like one day.  super frustrating.  not sure what is going on.  it was a tough week, but we are excited to hit the streets again this week and fix it all up.  last second in our sacrament meeting our bishop asked my comp and me if we could give a talk in sacrament. elder Davidson was pretty dang nervous, it reminded me of my first pop talk. but it went well and elder Davidson did awesome.  he knows more than he thinks, I'm trying to help him with that.

i cant wait till i can get my hands on the conference talks, I'm excited to read Elder Hale’s talk.  I hope all is going well in Utah.  how's it going with the Davis?  I love you so much, I praying for you all.  I'm excited for your idea mom. have a great week. 

Love
Elder Gardner 

October, 17 2011

What It Do Fam,

Lagoon?  what? did anyone take a picture of mom on the roller Coaster?  Sounds like you guys had an awesome time.  They had a little feria here but the roller coasters are like thousands of years old, they look super dangerous because they don't have anything to buckle you in or anything, and the people that run the rides are super sketchy, they look like big time druggies.  Pretty exciting time for the people here. 

So, this week was kind of crazy.  We worked our tails off and we had 5 investigators ready to go to the church on Saturday, then came Sunday and every last one of them fell.  Super frustrating.  Elder Davidson and I sat down and talked a lot about what happened and how we are going to change it.  This is were the blessings come from having a kid fresh out of the states.  He just laid it all out, he put me through the refiner's fire.  Just torching all the things he felt we were doing wrong. All of it was true, I have just become so blinded to some of the things that other elders do that aren't exactly right.  I'm so grateful for the chance that I have to humble myself and become better.  What a blessing the lord is giving me, know I just have to let the Gardener cut me down so that I can become the missionary that God wants me to be.  Not easy, but I'm learning a lot.  Ahhh, the mish. 

I love you all. I hope all is going great and pray that the lord is blessing you all.  Thanks mom for everything, I'm grateful to hear from you every week. I love you, keep it going. 
I've been thinking a lot about Mary Carolyn this week.  How is she doing?  I hope all is great with her.  Tell her I  said hi, and that I love her. 

Love ya,
Elder Gardner

October 10, 2011

Mom, felizidades with the Davis stuff. That's AWESOME!!!!!!  so are you going to work for a school or at home, how's that all going to go down?  I’m a little confused about how all 7 of us are going to take a class together.  Does that mean that marc and McKenzie are going to BYU-I too?  I'm super psyched to go to school when I get back, I miss the family get togethers, and the games. 

Week one of the transfer has come and gone with my new baby boy Elder Davidson.  He is from Boise Idaho and went to Centennial with a lot of people I know.  He is best friends with Conrad Davis, go figure.  Training this time is a lot different, I think it’s because I can speak and teach a lot better than before.  I say training, but really feel like I'm being trained.  I've lacked something my whole life, and the last couple of changes it has been effecting me a lot.  Just from this one week I can see that Elder Davidson is going to help me a lot with this attribute, and i feel it will change my  life forever.  We are in a new training program where we have to study for an extra hour, it’s a lot of studying and role playing.  It’s good though, and I'm have a great time with it. 

Elder Fulton just got changed into the same zone as me. It’s crazy to see how much he has grown.  It’s cool to see the difference from day one with him. It was great experience to see both my boys meet each other. 

Definitely send pictures.  I've been waiting to see some from what's going on in Utah, and Idaho.  Thanks mom so much, I hope you have a great week, and mucho exito con Davis.  I love you all, take care much.

Elder Gardner

Elder Gardner and his new companion, Elder Davidson

October 3, 2011

I'm so glad you were able to go to Dallas, what a blessing.  i know you have to worry about the testing, but i know that you will do awesome, good luck!   Well, i guess we watched exactly the opposite sessions.  i only saw priesthood, and Sunday sessions.  My favorite talk out of them all was from President Monson on Sunday Mourning.  cant wait till i get it in English.  in between the sessions on Sunday we had a district baptismal service, it was awesome.  we baptized a celestial unit.  this family is Beto and Yazmin, and their two kid Jonathan and Valeria.  this is a super special family, and they had a miracle week leading up to their baptism.  they were living in a union libre, and so we knew we had to marry them this week to get them baptized Sunday.  we thought everything would go smooth, but as always there were a few huge stumbling blocks.  to make the story a little more short, they didn't have the right papers to get them hitched.  we have a connection with a judge here that always helps us marry people fast and cheap.  we called to see if she could help us out because we lacked the right papers, she told us their was nothing we could do.  the whole week we had been asking the members to pray for this family so that they could get married, but we ran out of options.  my comp got the idea to try the judge again, and I'm not sure what he said but he made a deal with the judge so that we could make the marriage happen.  we had some long rides in the combi to get them married but it all worked out.  when we finalized the papers the judge told us that she had to put the date of the marriage for the 1st of October,  not knowing the mind of the lord we told her that would be alright.  when we past by on Friday to see if all was good for the baptism Sunday, beto told us he could go.  he tried to ask for Sunday off but they wouldn't let him. he said if he would have gotten married on the 1st they would have given him Sunday off.  a huge smile came over me and my comp to explain that for some reason the judge changed the date for the 1st.  super crazy, they we super stoked to hear that.  their baptismal service was awesome.  i know that was a miracle, and it came to pass because of sincere prayers from the ward. 

 

O yeah we had changes today, elder Baez left, and i got the news that I'm going to have a new bouncing baby boy, fresh from the states.  Heavenly fathers is trying to teach me something with all these greenie greens.  i pick him up tomorrow.  i let you know how it goes. i love you so much.  keep the smiles, and have a fantastic week.

 

Elder Gardner

September 26, 2011

MOM,

How lucky are we.  We have one of the greatest families on earth.  I got all choked up to hear you comments about seeing all your kids in the temple with there spouses.  I'm overly grateful to be a part of a family where each member is walking in the path that god planned for us to take.  Yes, we have trials, and boy are they heart wrenchers, but take a step back and look at our family........ its worth it!  The trials, the pressure, the enduring is worth it!   Because at the end of this life we will all be there together enjoying eternal happiness.   And when you see a family as awesome as ours, you have to look at where it all started.  The Big Ma and Pa.  Thank you mom and dad for showing us the way, thank you for putting up with us so that we can partake of never ending happiness.  Mom, in the words of the top gun fighting instructor,  "Yeah, you did it right´´.  I'm so glad to hear that everything went great.  Tell Andrew and Becky, felizidades.  Tell that Auzzy he's a stud,  and tell Starla and Teri they are amazing too. And tell the fam they are the best!    I love you, And i hope all goes well in the preparation for Texas.  I know you will kill it. 

Sept. 19, 2011

Super Sorry about last week, I feel a little sheepish because of what happened.  The thing is we didn't have money.  I had the debit card but I was trying to take the money out through a debit card and it wasn't letting me.  The next day I tried taking money out through the check card option and it worked.  Not sure why it changed because it has always been debit.  Let me know if there is something bad about using it as a checking card. 

So the big secret is..... nnnaahhh lets be real I don't have any juice secrets.  But the prophets have been grilling me because I've been reading their talks from last conference, about how returned missions highest priority after the mission should be marriage.  Namely president Scott and President Monson's talks hit home.  I still have a little time to worry about a mission companions but the just despues its celestial companion, its weird to be talking about this.

Anyways we had some great things happen this week.  We found an awesome new family but of course they aren't married.  My comp showed me how the Mexican celebrate the 15 of Sept.  We grilled bananas bought monllas and some staches, and my comp bought a ginourmous couete.  It was awesome.  Here are some pics of the day.  I’ll let you in on this family more next week, cause they are the bomb diggidy, but i don't have any more time .  I love you, and hope all goes well with the meat and wedding stuff.  cuidate mucho!!

Elder Gardner

mom don't you think i forgot your big 5-0 for anything you just wait for  something awesome that headed your way.  Feliz Cumpleanos.  I love you mom

Sept. 5, 2011

who the heck did BSU play?  was it Ohio state or Ohio university, or Miami Ohio?  if it was Ohio state i think i might pee my pants.  but don't be miss led i don't really care because I'm doing more important things here in Mexico (but please respond to the first 2nd question).  so MY comp and me and some other elders that live here close just got back from zumpango.  I told you about this new part of our area where we started to work, its where we got the 109 references.  so this place is called Santa Inés and its way out in the boonies, and its really close to a air force base. right now all of Mexico is getting read for the big bash that they have on the 15 de September. entonces, the air force for the past week has been practicing for something they are going to do on the 15.  so when ever we are over in Santa Inés we always see these planes passing by.  at first i was to excited, it was cool but nothing to start screaming like a girl over.  but my comp has a bit of a different perspective.  the kid saw his first plane in person when he flew to the CCMorMTC. so every time he sees a plane pass he starts to have spasm's, he always scrambles for the camera, and he always is way to late to get a pic.  Being around someone with this kind of enthusiasm has rubbed off on me.  I find myself every time i hear anything that sounds like a plane having the same type of spasms.  we have been talking to a lot of people about how cool the planes are, and one of our investigators told us where the air base is.  I called pres. yesterday and asked if we could go, he told me it was out of the mission, but because pres. call is new he let us go.  we got up early and spent an hour and a half in a combi only to find out that they wouldn't let us enter the base. we were desperate to find some where we could see all the planes taking off and doing their formations.  we knew that the train goes right past the base, so we found the tracks and walked for a good half hour until we found it.  it was the coolest thing I've ever done on a p-day.  their were hundreds of planes and helicopters practicing.  my comp almost died.   when we decided to head back we heard the train coming. joking around my comp said we could just jump on the train  just like all the immigrants do.  when the train passed by he gave them the hitch hikers sign and to our surprise the train immediately stopped and the conductor told us to get on .  we ran up to the train and got on.  it was THE COOLEST THING EVER.  sitting in the train riding back to our area.  when we got back to Prado's the train stopped right in the middle of town, right in the middle of the intersection.  all the cars were stopped wondering why the heck the train stopped in the middle of the road, and then they see 4 missionaries jump off and every ones faces where like, what the deal is going on.  it was the best p day ever. 

ok next week ill focus more on telling you about the people we are teaching, but dang how cool was that.  I'm sending a couple of pics but you have to see the rest.  I love you all, and hope that life is just  dandy.  I love you all, take care.

with a bunch of love and adrenaline
Elder Gardner