Beautiful beach

Last week as a teenager!

Hey Fam and Friends!!

Well this week went by just super fast once again. I think it went by super fast because I spent two days this week with different leaders, one day with our District leader in his area in divisions and the other day in the area of the Zone Leaders with one of them. Both of their areas have a beach in them. Now that im here in the south of Honduras we see the beach. Surprisingly though this week was the first time in my mission that I have gotten to go see the beach. So I was outside of my area for two days on divisions learning new stuff with the other leaders here in our zone. Im sending two pics from being on divisions with them, one when im holding an Eel in one of the ports where all these fisher men come in, and then the other out on the beach with the ZL where you can see some Nicaragua and El Salvador and one of the Honduran Islands. The biggest difference between my area and the areas of them is that they both are serving in little fishing towns where everyone lives off of the fish that they pull out. The men go out in the morning and from 2 on you find families and MEN which is what we have the hardest time in our area. It was quite the experience though to go out with them and meet their investigators. They are both really Baggy, or Trunky so it was tough to stay focussed when all they wanted to talk about is home, what they are goin to do, DVD´s that their girlfriends send them haha but its been cool. There are all kinds of missionaries in our mission, its really interesting how everyone takes the mission. Some take it seriously and some.. not so much!

One interesting thing I learned from our ZL from Idaho, Elder Beckstead, who goes home in May, is that what he regrets the most from his time that he has, is not using the Book of Mormon enough. I realized he doesnt even take his bible with him. It made me think if that is even ok, but as we literally ran from apt to apt with him and watching him JUST use the Book of Mormon to answer the questions that the people have, and always sharing something from there, the people here especially just soak it in, and from what iv seen from just citing the Bible scriptures that you need to, and just teaching the Restoration to everyone and the importance of prophets and the Book of Mormon. I took his advice and I stopped carrying the Bible. I realized I use it too much, and the Book of Mormon not enough...! I have studied the Bible A LOT in my mission so far and know 15 times more then I did before the mission, but I find myself only using it when I want to shave people... which does no good. The people that we should be looking for are the ones that are willing to accept it. Its been interesting the experiences iv already had since changing that. In fact the very first contact after I left the Bible at the house was a pastor of one of the churches there in my area and I had so many scriptures to pull out on him... but from the bible. I learned a valuable lesson that I enjoy too much shaving people, but I know it does no good. I shared 2 Nephi 25:26 with him from the Book of Mormon and then just left. Im not sure if its bad that I dont carry the bible anymore but its just a test to see how our success comes from just always sharing from the Book of Mormon.

Before I go I just wanted to share with you all an experience that happened to us this weekend. We have a member in the Branch who has a mom who is really sick and they believe she has a devil in her, she doesn't sleep, she doesn't eat, and she always tries to run away. Shes nearly 90 years old and its just really sad. Saturday night after me and Elder Lopez had already gone to bed, I get woken up to the phone ringing, I didn't hear it the first times because we sleep with fans running but after the 4th time this member had called us, being 11:20, I got up and answered and this member lady just tells me that she needed us to come over to her house and give her mom a blessing. I go wake up Elder Lopez and we get back in our clothes and in the middle of the night we take off over to her house. We had left the house half asleep and without saying a prayer so I stopped my comp in the street about 10 min before we got to her house so that we could have a prayer to prepare us for this blessing and with the words to say. We got to the house and she showed us to her mom who was laying in a dark room in the bed, but when we turned the light on her mom was just there with her eyes wide open, kind of creped me out at first but as I put the oil on her head, my comp gave the anointing, and then I get on my knees to seal it and give the blessing the words came and when I finished, I stood up, and just watched her eyes slowly shut and her breathing respirations slowed down and she calmed down and was asleep within seconds. This member, as we walked out of the room, shut of the light, and sat down at nearly midnight to talk to her she broke down in tears telling us how thankful she was for us, but we explained to her that it has nothing to do with us, its the preistood and the hand of the lord that guides us. We got home and I wasn't able to get to sleep for quite a while just thinking about what had just happen and after laying in bed a while I got on my knees once again to thank the lord for everything and an overwhelming peace came over me. I share with all of you of my testimony of the power of the lords hand in this work, and the power of the Priesthood authority that all the men of this one and only true church hold. I love my lord and savior Jesus Christ so much because I know he lives and guides me and my companion in this work. Theres no doubt. I may have the worst week ever... but then its experiences like this that I have and it changes my view on everything. This member called my in the morning before we took off to go set up chairs and sacrament at the church at 7 to let me know that her mom woke up happy for the first time in months!! This is the true chruch!!

I dont have anymore time but I love you all!!

Thanks for all the love and support!

Love Elder Gardner

PS Thanks everyone for the Birthday Wishes! I love you all!!

ouch!!!

No Changes

Hey Fam,

Well yeah me and my kid didnt have any changes this week. So im gonna end up bein with him for 3 months at least! Its been good news though because we are really starting to get along a whole lot better now! Ive just had to get over the simple little things and just laugh with him and its been really fun! We are really having fun together right now! All that weight I put on in Valle de Angeles im starting to really burn off. Iv been kinda sick this past week because of something I ate that my stomach didnt like and me and Elder Lopez have started doing workouts together at night and our house is just a sauna at night if your not seated right by a fan so im able to get a good sweat goin but Ive definately lost some weight here in the south!

This week was an interesting one though... on Tuesday night there was an earthquake at like 10 at night and we were both seated at our desks writing in our journals and for about 15 seconds there was just a constant shake, after about 10 seconds we both looked at each other but sure enough it was a little earthquake and I think the first one ive ever felt in my life but it was kinda cool! Also I haven't seen rain in a good 4 months or so and just completely random there was a big rain storm that came in and rained super hard for about 2 hours and then just a ridiculous heat came in. The roads were soaked afterwards but its just kinda crazy how it is here in the south, because after rain is when it gets the hottest... ugh I cant even describe it, it was cool though, i never thought id say id miss the rain after what happened to me and Elder Broderick in Sabanagrande but I miss it.

On saturday we had a huge activity with 4 different areas and had a big soccer tournament from 10 in the morning until like 2... they told us if we got some investigators to come we could play at least a game... wow biggest mistake of my mission haha we got 2 guy investigators to come play with us so I jumped in and played for a little bit and that sun saturday just cooked me! Im sending two pics from Saturday and I KNOW.... Im WHITE but its been almost 11 months alright!

The best news of the week though is that we got Nelson and Osiris, a couple that weve been teaching for a while and we couldnt get them to commit to get married.. they accepted and got us everything that we needed to be able to get everything ready for the marriage and then Nelson is planning on getting baptized after too, so if everything goes good we will marry them on the 11th of March friday, My Birthday, and then baptize him on saturday the 12th! We were super stoked when we met with them and talked them into getting married!! I didnt necessarily see that coming, but at the same time I didnt want to give up on them! Im hoping that Osiris his girlfriend will like the baptism and decide to get baptized but her family is super catholic but we will see! They get along really well with us so I think we will do it! Just with time. Were looking at baptizing 2 other 12 and 14 year old kids on the 12th so were excited that were finally seeing a little bit of success from all that weve done!

Thats basically all the update that I got for this week, weve been plating soccer all morning and this heat is just deadly and im starving now but I want you all to know once again... that I love you so much! I love seeing your pics and finding out how all you are doin!! Wish us luck, rather keep us in your prayers on getting everything set up for this marriage to go through!!

Love you all!!

Love Elder Gardner