March 26, 2012

The Temblor

Yeah really nothing happened, but we sure felt it.  Elder Briggs and I were teaching a lady on the second floor of her house.  It was a super crazy feeling that. I've never experienced anything like it before.  Not really what I dreamed before the mission, but none the less, I experienced my first earthquake.

The big 2-1.  Elder Briggs birthday is on the 29th,  so we will go out and buy a big tres leches cake.  They are so good. 

We had a super awesome experience yesterday.  The barrio is kind of struggling with attendance and we found part of the solution.  We visited un hermano and he was kind of bummed with different things that are going on in his life.  Before we left he asked us if we knew where the familia Ancona lives.  This is a familia that Elder Castro and I helped reactivate.  The hermano is their home teacher but didn't know were they lived and has never visited with them.  We accompanied the hermano to the familia Ancona.  The hno shared a message with them and his testimony.  The family Ancnoa was super touched and said that they have not had visiting teachers for 7 years.  They we so appreciative for the hno.  After the lesson the hno was super pumped, he felt the power of home teaching for the first time.  Later the hno wanted to go with us to the rest of our appointments the rest of the day.  He added a great testimony to each lesson.  Doing his home teaching changed the hno so much, and helped him out with what is going on in his own life. 

I love you all. the church is true.  Home teaching is important.  We can change lives. 

Elder Gardner

Enjoy conference.

March 19, 2011

Oh Yeah,

We had a pretty dang sweet weekend.  We had some awesome baptisms this week, which was a good way to send Elder Castro home.  When I got here Elder Castro only had 3 months left, and now tomorrow he goes home.  Now I’m the one with 3 months left.  My new comp came in today.  His name is Briggs, Elder Briggs.  He has something like 7 months on the mission and is stoked to work.  I’m excited because we have a lot to do. 

On Sunday we baptized Erik before church.  The kid is a stud!  He was recently married to his now wife, who was a less active but now super active.  They are super excited to get to the temple.  After sacrament meeting we had the baptism of Paulina and America.  They are the daughters of Ignacio, who I have talked a lot about.  We had an awesome lesson with them this past week.   We were kind of at a dead end because Paulina (mom) did not want to get married with Ignacio.  Ignacio has problems with the Marry Jane and it has effected the family a whole heap, especially his relationship with Paulina.  Ignacio has been going to an addiction program that the church offers.  He has been reading the Book of Mormon like a mad man, and he walks with his kids some 3 miles to church on Sundays.  Little by little Ignacio has been winning Paulina back. They have been sitting next to each other, holding hands, being super cozy on the couch. They also told us they are ready to get married.  Their daughters, Victoria, Paulina, and America  are gold.  They just have not had the courage to get baptized without their padre.  In a lesson we had with them, we set a day for them to get married, and then we hit them with the baptismal questions.  We asked if they had any questions and it was silent for a long time and then little Paulina says, "I’ve got a question. Who wants to get baptized with me this Sunday?"  They were super excited and Paulina and America got baptized.  It was one of the most powerful baptisms I’ve ever been in.  Now big Paulina and Ignacio are going to get married this week. Ignacio has to wait a little while to show that he has given up the weed and then they can be baptized with their other daughter, Victoria.  This family is awesome.  They are the reason I’m here.  I can’t tell you how awesome this family is and how much the gospel has changed their lives.  That’s why I’m out here, so that I can help people like them, who desperately need help. 

I love you all so much, keep smiling, and CTRing

Peace is easy.

Elder Gardner

March 12, 2012

Hola de la Colmena or the Beehive

We had a great fin de semana.  It ended with Erik getting married and getting ready for his baptism this Saturday.  We had two baptisms, Pati and her son Erick (different Erick).  It seemed as though Satan was trying to throw everything at them so that they couldn't be baptized.  Pati's husband is an alcoholic, and works all week and has his day off on Sunday.  For some reason her husband bought tickets for the whole family to go up to the mountains and watch a futbol game on Sunday mourning (Pati told us they never leave on Sunday).  Pati had no clue, until Sunday mourning, so the day of the baptism her husband told her they were going to Villa de Carbon.  She told him they had to go to church.  Her husband got super angry, and Pati was left with the decision to go with her husband or go to her baptism.  She chose the Baptism, but told us it was one of the hardest choices of her life.  They had a beautiful baptismal service.  I talked a little about Ignacio last week.  Him and his family all made it to church and stayed for the baptism.  Ignacio came up to me at the end and said, "what do i have to do so my family can have our baptisms." I showed him the baptismal questions, and explained that he needed to get married and get over his addiction with the drugs.  He is doing every thing he can so that he can turn his life around and fix his family. 

We had conferencia de estaca.  This was the fist time that they used the internet to broadcast to each of the churches in the stake. They were just about to start and the counselor to the stake president got up to the pulpit but the sound didn't work.  We weren't sure what they were going to do, but after 10 minutes he came back to the pulpit and the sound was good.  We weren't sure what had happened until the counselor gave his talk.  He said they had checked every thing many times to make sure that every thing was ready for the conference, but when he got the pulpit it didn't work.  He said they  went and checked out all the lines and plugs, and every thing was perfect. They had no clue what the problem was. Then the president of the stake comes up to them. They inform him that they didn't know what the problem was.  The stake president says "lets say a prayer". He gives a prayer that everything will work.  The counselor goes back to the microphone and starts the conference.  The theme of the conference for me was, put your confidence in God and he will take care of the rest.  God loves us and if we keep our covenants and have faith in him, we will receive the miracles that we need in our life.  I was amazed at the faith of that stake president.  It has put in me a greater desire to strengthen my faith.  I love you so much, have a great week

Come what may and love it.

Elder Gardner

March 5, 2012

Hola,

Things are just rolling along here in the colmena. We have had a lot of work the last couple of days.  Right now we have many families that are ready for baptism, but for the law of chastity or word of wisdom we are at a road block.  We are teaching a guy named Ignacio.  He would have been baptized a long time ago if it wasn't for the drugs.  He is starting right now in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.  He told us when we explained the Book of Mormon that he has been waiting for an account of Jesus coming to the Americans.  We are teaching his kids and wife also.  The other day Ignacio's kids were sick and he asked if we could offer a prayer for them.  We gave them each a blessing.  When we passed by for our next visit  Ignacio was eager for his kids to tell us how they were cured because of the blessing.  Knowing that it was fast and testimony meeting this past Sunday, Ignacio was trying to animate his kids to bear their testimonies about there experience with the blessing.  This is a very special family but they just have to get over  a couple hurdles to take the next big step of baptism.  We have three baptisms planned for this weekend.  I'm praying it all goes well.  I will let you know next week how it all pans out.

So, to answer the question, mom,  the secretaries told me that my return date is the 13 of June.  That is not a for sure date, they will send you an email with all that info when it gets a little closer.  I am starting to get a little concerned how it is all going to go down with school and every thing.  Do I need to sign up for my classes now, or will I have time to do that when I get back?

I read a talk from Elder Lawrence Corbrige this past week and wanted to share this quote from his talk.

"Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up.  You never give up!  You just keep on going.  You don't quit, and you will make it.  There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment.  Jesus Christ is the way.  Every other way, any other way, whatever other way is foolishness." 

Have a great week, and I’ll talk to you next week.
Love,

Elder Gardner 

February 27, 2012

Hola de la Colmena

Wow, that is a super impressive website.  I'm excited for you mom.  We had a conference this past week with Elder Johnson of the seventy. He is area president here in Mexico.  It was very rewarding to listen and feel his spirit.  Right now we have many families in teaching.  Each is progressing at different rates, but we are getting there.   I just got back from immigration, I signed my visa for my last time, and they gave me a tarjeta so that I can leave the country.  Our mission will be changing drastically in the coming months.  The mission will lose 88 missionaries in the coming 5 months.  That's a lot of newbies coming in.  I'm almost positive that I will be training my last two changes.

I hooked you up with some photos, the first pic where I'm holding my hands up, if you look close in between my hands you can see Popocatepetl. It’s an active volcano here in Mexico city.  You can’t see it in the pic but it’s putting out a bunch of smoke. Looks like it’s ready to blow.  Normally you can’t see Popo from where we are because of all the clouds (its really pollution but i like to think of them as clouds, to make me feel better).  Another pic is of me and Miguel in our luchador masks.  Nachooooooooo!   And the last pic is just me preaching to the Colmena.

I love you.  I'm glad to here that things are getting started with the dyslexia program.  Keep it going strong.  I did get the package. I’ll put those shirts to work.  Thanks for the Snickers. The district thought they were great.  ¡que tenga buen semana!

Con Amor
Elder Gardner

February 20, 2012

Hey, hey, Hey

I hope all is well in the Land of the Brave.  Just wanted to share with you all a little of what I've been thinking about this week.  I read a talk from Elder Christoferson, titled “Moral Discipline”.  I thought about you all starting up your new lives, battling with children, some of you have callings with the youth, and we have the elections for a new president coming up.  This talk hammers down what we need to learn and fight to protect, and what those young kids of the world need to know.

All is going just smooth down here in tortilla land.  I love you all and hope things are just swinging along.  

Here is the link to the talk.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/moral-discipline?lang=eng&query=moral+discipline

If that doesn't work its Elder D. Todd Christoferson's talk in Oct. 2009 called “Moral Discipline”. 

Peace be the journey,

Elder Gardner

Make sure to check out the footnotes (or references) at the end of the talk!

February 6, 2012

Dear Mom,

I got my hands on some Skippy peanut butter.  Within the last 3 days I've eaten 2 loaves of bread worth of PB&J sandwiches.  I love my peanut butter and root beer. 

Well, another transfer has come and gone. Today starts Elder Castro's last change on the mission.  It’s my first time killing someone.  My job this change is to keep the kid´s head in the game for the last 6 weeks.  No, he´s doing good but he loves to remind me how much time he has left.  I'm excited for this transfer, we have a lot of potential.  We just need to animate some families to get married.  Right now we have 4 families waiting to get married so they can get baptized.  Mom, Esperanza is doing really well.  Her problem right now is that the dad of her two boys is super catholic and comes to visit every Miercoles.  He has said that he doesn't want his kids to go to church, but that if Esperanza wants to go she can.   Esperanza told us that her boys loved the church and that they will keep attending.  We told her she is learning quicker than most people, she told us, "I think it just has been my time to find the Church."  I’ll let you know what happens with her in the coming weeks.  Mom, I would love to bring you to a lesson with us, that would be awesome.  I love you, good luck with the homework.  Give those little boys a big hug from me.  Thanks so much.

Con Amor,

Elder Gardner