Tuesday, January 18, 2011
More Surprises!
Hey Fam!!
Well, I've once again got some surprises and exciting news for all of you! This week has just been insane and I still cant believe it was only this past week that it all happened. Um your probably thrown off by my subject title to this email home but this past Monday night when me and my comp got back home we had dinner and then just came back to the house cuz Elder Goyette wasn't feel too good still and still couldnt eat too much! We went to bed a little early monday night because we were lookin at a big last day for him to say bye to some of the members and to see the investigators because it would have been the last day of changes. Little did we know that the Assistants to the president called us 3 times at 11:30 monday night so we called them back in the morning without knowing what would have happened... well we find out that Elder Goyette was being changed in as one of the working Elders in the mission office and that we had to get to Tegucigalpa as soon as we could! We were looking at a good 4 hours in a big bus and him having to pack up everything, well we did it and headed to Teguc. When we got to teguc and dropped him off at the office i just left him to get some training and then I went out on divisions with one of the elders there in the city! Later that night when ALL the elders were anxiously waiting to find out where they were getting changed out too or who their new comp was gonna be.. well I find out that President had called me to be a TRAINER! I was told I had to be at the mission home at 8:30 the next morning to find out who my kid would be. In the mission when you train, they say its when you have a kid, or you become a daddy in the mission! So as it turned out... 2 days before my 9 month mark i was in the mission home waiting to find out who my kid would be! We had breakfast and then did the good old line up and president called out who would be training who. The new ones were all latinos straight out of the MTC in Guatemala and my kids name is Elder Lopez! From Nicaragua... and theres the explanation why the subject title is what it is! I couldnt believe it at first, I was one of the tallest and youngest missionaries there getting ready to train and I got the shortest of them all! So iv been called to train a new missionary in an area that I only had 4 days to get to know because Elder Goyette got so sick, so its gonna be a fun interesting change.
Well a little more of the crazy things that happened this week is that there was a guy who me and Elder Goyette went and say last week and gave a blessing to, I dont remember if I told you guys, but he was really really sick. Well this man passed away Tuesday, and me and Elder Lopez showed up there on thursday to see how he had been doing and she told us to come on in and the whole bed and everything where he was had been taken out and there was just flowers. Just something about that blessing that I ended up giving to him last week in front of about 15 other family members after explaining that we have authority from god to do these things and its called the preistood. I gave the blessing and im not sure why but in the blessing I remember saying that whether you pass away or not brother, your father in heaven will be there waiting for you with open arms and that you should no longer worry about as long as you are accepting to the will of the lord and what he wants of you and then that was it. Well yeah he passed away tuesday and when we showed up Thursday, his wife, Felicita, was there in tears, but told us that she had been waiting for us to come back and see her. We taught about the importance of understanding the plan of salvation which our father in heaved created for us and that he is in a better place! Shortly after she told us right away that she wanted to get baptized. The chills just ran through my body when I heard her tell me that and we went on, on my kids first day in the mission, putting the baptismal date with her for the 22nd. The lord works in very mysterious ways, but when we are exercising our faith according to the will of the father, he blesses us! I have gained a very strong testimony this past week about the will of the lord!
We have one other investigator named Alex who is 20, and who showed up to church this last week for the third time this past week, second time with me because he was in Guatemala for 4 months working and the missionaries found him and gave him a Bible and when he got here, by chance he just lived 2 blocks away from our church. He has been super humble with us now that we actually found his house and started teaching him. We put the date to get baptized on the 22nd as well yesterday after teaching him of the restoration of the church. He accepted everything and so now its just preparing him for this saturday for his baptism. Were super excited for that!
So I told you that Elder Ballard was coming to talk to the mission this week so saturday morning at 3 in the morning we caught a bus from here to Choluteca, and then a bigger bus with all the other misionaries here in the south, to Tegucigalpa. We got in Teguc about 8 and he started taling to us about 9, it was so awesome to hear from him but really hard because we had been running on maybe 4 hours of sleep in the past 2 days before so it was tough and then right after we took right off again for our areas, another 4 hours, and 6 hours before we got back to the house about 7, just in time for dinner. Its been a tiring week but super amazing!
The last amazing thing that I got news of this week was that NOEL GOT HIS CALL!!! I talked to him last night when he called me about 10 to tell me that he already got his mission call. I think I had more excitement to hear about where he got called to then I did when I got mine. Noel has been called to the LONDON ENGLAND SOUTH MISSION... yeah the last place anyone would have thought of! I couldn't believe it, and neither could he! Noel Goes in on the 22nd of April, right after I complete a year in the mission. I still am on such a high for him right now, im so excited. He doesn't want everyone to know about his call, just the ones that he loves so dont go crazy on his Facebook is what he wanted me to tell you too! Ahh i couldn't believe it!
Anyways, Iv said way too much for one day but just know all of you that Im loving the mission so much. Training has been an interesting experience but I love it so much!! I know this is the true church and just ask that you keep me and Elder Lopez in your prayers so we can get this little branch up and going with the help of the members. I love you all so much and appreciate the support!!
Until next week!!
Love Elder Gardner
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