Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, what an impact.


Hola Familia,
 
Well its been getting harder and harder for me to come up with things to say in these emails because we do the same thing every day and Im sure It will be much easier in the mission field! Reguadless to sum it all up though this week was awesome! What im going to do for the next 4-5 weeks is just tell you of experiences or changes that I experience because it just gets boring telling you the same things every week! The spanish is coming along really well and every day it only gets better! I really enjoy learning spanish, Elder Price not so much but Im helping him! I think all of us in our district have come upon a change in ourselves, espeically our outlooks and attitudes towards the language and this work of the mission in general! ESPECIALLY ME! I say this not in a bad way but in a way that really is Humbling! The end of last week and up until like monday I had been praying and praying like crazy for humility and to become more christlike! My answer came last night...
Last night was the Tuesday night devotional and like I said last week its always a suprise of who we are going to have come and speak to us! Me and Elder Price were a little late to getting in line to get into the devotional so we were way back in the line! We finally make it in and the Teleprompters arent up so we figures it wasnt anyone important (I know thats messed up but sometimes we get people who we have never heard of). Anyways we get sitting down and they announce that we need to all stand when the apostle enters so then we knew it infact was going to be one of the twelve we were hoping! The highlight of my entire week came last night at 7 whe Elder Jeffery R. Holland came into the room and everyone stood up and you could hear the reverent whisperings of ahhhhhs! We had just watched a talk of his that he gave to the MTC in 2000 on "The Miracle of a Mission" and he thuroughly chastised everyone but in the most christlike way possible! Ever since then we have been just wishing that Elder Holland would come talk to us and sure enough we got lucky again! He only comes like once every 6-8 months or so and seriously I am getting so lucky! Elder Tom Perry... and now Elder Holland! Ah anyways... that man has the strongest most powerful testimony of missionary work then any apostle in this church! He spoke to us for an hour and 10 minutes with no notes or anything and somehow made it sound organized! He spoke to us telling us that we need to have the vision of what we want to be in two years when we get home and to experience the change NOW! I wish there was more that I could share about that talk from the 2 pages of notes that I took but something about that talk struck us all really hard becasue I felt, and continue to feel the impact that he had on all of us last night!
Thats enough about that though! I forget to tell you what all I do on wednesdays after the temple, laundry, and writing letters! Our Zone has the TRC night! Training Resource Center or something like that! What we do is we have a task and a lesson that we teach and do each week! This week me and Elder Price have been working on the 2nd lesson still just in English this time and then next week we go back the first lesson and teach it in spanish! Haha im ready and stoked! I think Elder Price is a little nervous cuz he's still having a hard time with the spanish but the truth is he knows a whole lot more then he thinks he does! But anyways... this week we also have a spanish task.. which is Teaching how to pray in spanish! I've been practicing like crazy and i think iv got it down! This is what I have been looking forward to, and still look forward to do out in the field probably more then baptising itself! Being able to teach little kids, or anyone in general how to pray is going to be the best! We all know the strong testimony that I have for prayer and I just cant wait!
 
Oh and the district above us left this monday morning at 5am  for Argentina! Belive it or not they just got there this morning after their 21 hr flight! Thats crazy! I dont know how anyone could sit on a plane for 21 hours! Im so stoked and excited for them though!
 
Ok let me just say how thankful I am for the package! I did get it friday so it worked out perfectly because those oreo cookies would have tasted more like the mints then anything! Those cookies were so amazing!
Mom Im so glad you got my card and had a good mothers day!
Dad how was your birthday? you got my card too right??
Oh an I do see tucker almost every day! I've run into Elder Taylor King a couple of times too and he acually tested up and got put into the advances spanish class... so thats awesome!
GO LAKERS!!!! They SWEPT the Jazz is what I heard! hahaha poor jazz!
You all better keep me posted on the Lakers upcoming series with the Suns! I have become the go to man for the game updates! So keep it up Dani! Thanks so much!
I actually got this email out in good time but I gotta go change my laundry now so I will look forward to seeing the DearElders and letters hopefully throughout this week!
Know that I have such a strong testimony of this church and everything it teaches! Im having a blast and havent regretted one moment being here! Thanks for all the support!
 
I love you all!!
 
Love your servant of the lord!!
 
Elder Gardner