November 21, 2011

Its weird to think about thanksgiving because I've almost forgotten what its like.......Football.  I hope it all goes well in Park City. 

Well, poco a poco my son and I are figuring things out,  every week we are getting better.  We still have a long way to go, but I feel good about this week.  This last week we worked in the Tiangis.  It’s like the flea market.  All the missionaries in the district came and helped us out with a little booth we put up in the middle of the market.  We had two elders always at the booth, and the rest walking around contacting people.  It was pretty fun, and I think the next time we do it we can change some things so we can have more success.   We got a lot of references that we need to visit this week. 

I sent you a pic of a baptism we had last week.  The kids name is José Antonio, he is the son of the lady I told you about that told us she was a member about the first week of teaching her.  Well, she has another daughter named Itzamara.  She is super friendly but every time we go over she always leaves or has some lame excuse.  Well, yesterday we just through down everything on her.   It cost us a little bit of work but we had the perfect situation to talk to her and we took advantage. She has had a lot of things happen in her life and has lost all her faith in god.   We started to talk to her and she just opened up big time.  She was asking some super awesome questions that led right into the message of the Restoration.  She accepted her baptismal date for the 11 of December.  We are super excited for her.  Our area is look up, now we just need to go to work to get things really going. 

I hope the turkey week goes awesome. I love you so much, take a whole bunch of care.  Till next week…

con amor

Elder Gardner

November 13, 2011

Hola Mama,

I feel so good to know that you all are doing great.  Thanks for sharing that scripture with me mom, it was something I needed to hear.  Well, I just looked at the photos from the wedding and reception that Becky sent me.  I was staring at the pic with all the fam and I was flippin'.  I can not believe how different you all look.  Especially my chubby brother Marc.  And who told the girls they could grow up?  I'm excited to come back and hang out with my little sisters.  I've got to make up for some time that I wasted before the mission.  O, boy I love our family.  

It was a good week, we were able to go to the temple this week and it was awesome.  I was able to see a lot of my old comps, and other elders I haven't seen for ages.  We ended the week and this transfer with 2 baptisms. They both were great, a little stressful, but nonetheless great.  Our baptism on Saturday was a nephew of some of my first converts here in Prado's.  The baptism on Sunday was the son of Rosario (the lady i told you about that pulled the joke on us that she was a member), José.  The elders of the ward that meets before us had a baptism, and knew that we would be baptizing right after them. We checked the font at the beginning of our services and it was full.  We started the baptism service and then  someone came up to me and said "is it a problem that there is no water in the font?" I thought he was playing, but I checked it and for sure there wasn't a drop in the font.   So after the opening prayer we had to announce to everyone that there wasn't water in the font.  We postponed the baptism until we could fill the font.  The only problem was that the boiler wasn't working so the water was freezing.  My comp baptized José, and it was his first baptism.  José has 11 years and so he didn't handle the cold water very well .  Let’s just say my comp had a difficult time dunking the kid.  José was flipping out.  My comp finally put him under and José came out of the water screaming like a banchee.  Super funny but kind of distracted from the spirit.  The good side of it all is that the kid is never going to forget his baptism. 

So the results of changes is that I'm staying with my guero son for one change mas, the next change is the day after Christmas.  All is well in the land, I love you so much and hope you have a great week.

Love

Elder Gardner 

November 7, 2011

Whoa, Sister Gleeson, that was such a long time ago.  What happened with the BOM going to Brian?  I have 17 months lets not get a head of ourselves.  But yeah, where has the time gone?  I'm learning a lot, I still have so much to learn.  I have these dreams where I'm going home and I just feel so disappointed that I did not do everything i wanted to accomplish on the mish.  It is always a good reminder for me to love the mish, but use my time o so wisely.  No regrets.  My comp got sick this last week and it was tough because we lost a whole day to work, but we did alright this week anyways.  But this week is the week to blow our area up with the spirit. 

So Elder Davidson and I have made friends with one of the taxi drivers around here, because he likes to talk English with us.  It’s a sweet deal cause we can get free rides anywhere, but it’s always fun to be around people who think they know how to speak English.  We are working on him and trying to get him to stop laying down the “F” bomb, he is a work in progress.  We have two baptisms for this week so we have a lot of work to do.  I’ll let you know how it goes next Monday.  I will talk to the Y.W.  Pres. She is excited to do it, but I’ll figure out what is going on. 

I love you all, till next week

Elder Gardner

 

(letter to dad)

Super great to hear from you dad.  No, I never met an Elder Carroll, it’s possible but I don't remember.  When you were explaining Austin's speaking abilities, it sounded really similar to what I feel like. Yeah, I can talk with people and say what I want, but there are a lot of things I need to clean up with the grammar.  I expect to be able to talk to Marc in pure Spanish on Christmas day.  How goes the hunt.  Thanks for the prayers, you and the family have also been in mine.  I love you dad.  I find frequently during my time here things I've learned from you and that have blessed my life.  Thanks so much for the letters you have written me, it’s always nice to get a real letter.  Thanks for everything, let me know how things are going.  Give the Auzzy a kiss for me.   cuidate mucho

love your boy,

Elder Gardner

October 31, 2011

What the deal is Emily doing going to a stake dance?!?  Man, time is flying no? Tell Em those costumes looked pretty sweet.  That's rough beans that every one ditched you for Halloween.  I forgot, what day is Halloween?  The big day coming up is day of the dead.  Not sure if you guys remember where I was a year ago.  I was signing my visa in Salt Lake.  One year in MEXICO!

We did a lot better this week and made some progress, not a perfect week by all means but we are getting there.  We found a lady by the name of Rosario.  She was a contact and when we passed by her house. We taught her a super sweet lesson.  We were excited for her.  We passed by for our next appointment, and we tried to set her with a baptismal fetcha, but she told us she has already been baptized.  Thinking obviously she is catholic, because of her virgin in her house.  So then we went through the “you have to be baptized by some one who holds the authority of God” deal.  She then broke down and gave up the lies and told us she was already baptized into our church.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  After a long discussion to really find out if she was a member and really knew what's she was talking about, I could not stop laughing, partly out of frustration and partly because my comp had not a clue on this earth what was going on.  Rosario was baptized about 20 years ago, and still knows some of the members.  Right know we are working on getting a testimony again, and teaching her two boys José Antonio and Uriel.  José has a fetcha for the 16 de Nov.  The boys absolutely loved churched. 

Mom i talked to the presidente de las mujeres jovenes, and she loved the idea of the exchange.  This is the email address of her son, but is the way you can communicate with her, she is waiting to hear from you.  eldergerar@hotmail.com or on Facebook with José Gerardo Martinez Gutierrez. 

Don't worry about what your hearing on the news, I'm fine and happy, here in Prado's it’s super tranquillo.  I love you so much.  Some thing that you can sent is some pens, but they have to be pilot pens .07, I really need a green, red, and blue. Pilot is the brand and it has to be the size .07.  and if you could send that CD holder that Grandma Gardner gave me, it’s yellow, that would-be awesome. 

I love you all and hope you can see and feel all the blessing that we have.  Thanks for everything. 

Love,
Elder Gardner

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