Cantelope and Heat

Hey Fam and Friends,

Well what a week! Im not sure if this week has gone by fast or slow cuz it just all feels the same. I cant believe its already been 6 weeks that iv had with my kid and that changes are this wednesday but wow it went by super fast. Were both new in our area so its lookin like were gonna be together for at least one more change. Im excited about that because we have a lot of work to do, and to be honest I dont think I trust my kid yet, hes gotta lot to learn, hes just kinda a hard one to teach! Weve had fun but our personalities are complete opposite.

Reguardless we do have good news that we did have one baptism of an 8 year old kid who another kid in the ward had been taking to church and told us he wanted to get baptized a couple weeks ago and we were doing all we could to teach his mom, cuz no one in his family are members and his mom is super cool with us and had given us dinner a couple times so were hoping that this baptism of her son will maybe start bringing her to church! We couldnt get her to come to church yesterday because she had to work or something but hopefully this next week. This sunday we had the smallest amount of people in church that iv seen since ive been here and I just dont get it. We were going up and up the last 4 weeks and all the sudden it went down to only 37 in church yesterday. Our branch president still doesnt know what hes doing and the only ones with anything of experience is me and my comp. So for the first time in my mission I confirmed Lester as a member of the church and gave him the Holy Ghost! We also had a leader from the District come and talk to us yesterday and he took up all 2 and a half hours of church yesterday just shaving all the members and by the time he was done there was only 14 people which is just frustrating, I know he was only doing his job and theres not much we can do about that but its been tough because Iv just had to accept the fact that we cant make everyone happy and pleased and excited to go to church every sunday because of things like that but we will get there someday!

Weve been having a really hard time with all of our other investigators because we cant get them to decide to get married because they are too stuck on the traditions of their fathers and have never seen a GOOD marriage and so they are all scared. Its been tough because its hard to meet with the both at the same time too because almost everyone works in the cantaloupe fields, working 12 hour shifts for 7 dollars a day... the life of these people is just something else here! I have loved the south so much while ive been here, even though it is hotter then hot. Were struggling but learning new stuff every day!

Im having a hard time here because I feel I say the same thing every monday and im really sorry. I wish there were more exciting news to share with you all but as for right now there isnt much but more and more scorpions, trianchulas, eating lots and lots of cantaloupe and mangos and sweating a lot! Time has just been flying by the past while and its just another one of them times of all the changes. Even though im pretty sure im not gonna have changes, theres gonna be a lot new missionaries comin in which is always exciting. All morning today we and the other 5 greengos in the zone played basketball and wow... it is just soooo dang hot here. We were all just soaked within 15 minutes!!

Ill do what I can for you guys this week to work super hard and bring you guys something interesting to talk about this next week but as for right now the only thing beating in my head is my testimony! I have such strong testimony of this church, even though we havent had much success where im at, I KNOW that im doing what I need to do, even if it is just planting seeds... I just have to keep reminding myself that if I KNOW im doing what I need to do, I have nothing to worry about. My prayers at night keep getting longer and longer, and my testimony of prayer keeps getting bigger and bigger because I know he wants and waits to hear from me, just as my loving family wants and waits to hear from me each week! I love you all so much and look forward to hearing from you every week! I hope your having a wonderful Presidents Day, and off day of school. Once again sorry about the snow, I wish I could share a bit of this ridiculous heat that im dealing with. Not too long before were in the hottest season of the year... ugh!!

I love you all!!

Love Elder Gardner