Sunday, February 5, 2012

New Companion, Elder Guillen

Meet Jasmin my new little girl friend

Saying good bye

Big Changes!!

Hey Fam and Friends,

Wow well I dont even know where to start honestly... at the beginning of the week I was just saying goodye to the members and preparing another baptism that THEY had this weekend. Change night came along and normally we dont get the call until in the night like 10:30ish but when we were at the bishops house cuz all the men of the priestood invited me over to do a little "goodye part" and all the sudden we get the call and Cac had the cell phone and so he runs out of the room to write it all down and I stayed talking with everyone... soon after he comes in and says im going back to the DIRTY DIRTY SOUTH HAHAH thats just what they say about it here in the mission. I got changes still as a Zone Leader but here in a place called San Lorenzo. Its in the south but not as far into the south as what I was last time. They say its hotter though and now I can testify of that especially now that were entering the hottest time of the year... again. The good thing is that we have bikes here... its been fun. It took me a while get my butt used to a bike seat for the first time in 2 years... plus all the pot holes that are in our area. Im super excited though... there are some incredible members here though and I think im gonna like my death place. Even the people that live here in San Lorenzo say that even the Devil himself is sucking on a Popsicle... for real though... its HOTTTTT!!!!! Im gonna be finishing the mission here.

The zone here is a whole lot smaller though. We only have 12 elderes and 4 sisters... I like the zone a lot better though cuz its a whole lot more united and 6 of the 8 areas are all with new missionaries being trained so were stoked to see the animation the the new ones bring.
In our area (La Obrera) its a branch again but its a pretty strong one I guess. We have 110 of assistance and even though its just a house that we have... its a full house! Something im having to get used to and enjoying at the same time is being able to pick up and play with the kids cuz they love GREENGOS hahaha. I do miss that so much though being able to play with kids and not feeling weird about it. I even made my self a new little girlfriend here as you can see in the picture... i dont even know what I did but we were in a little activity and she ran up and wanted me to hold her and ever since then shes been my new little girlfriend. Her name is Jasmin, I already love that girl sooo much. Its in her house where were eating on the hammock too

Im really gonna like this new area even though Im gonna have deal with the hottest time of the year in the hottest place in the mission... all just a week or two before I go home... maybe ill be able to go home a little skinnier then what I was in the city haha. Its been a good experience soo far...we found a family my second night there and they seem like they want to progress... as always though they arent married but they want to be because they have never been baptized either and know that its important so we will see if we can teach them into the water!
Ive been ready for this experience to get to know my last area for a while now after being an entire School Year (9 months) in the city and now im back into the south trying to find my last baptisms. I dont like the weeks where we dont have a lot of spiritual experiences but its hard sometimes when we dont have the time to just straight up work on the area. This week we will be better though. Right now im in the city again... we have been traveling all day because tomorrow we have a Zone Leader Council and a 70 is gonna be there, Elder Fallabella... so were getting ready for a shave fest haha. Nah its gonna be a good experience tomorrow!

Anyways... I love you all very much! The work continues... just new people, new heat, and new bikes for me haha

Love your missionary
Elder Gardner

Something cool... I completed 2 years this past week from the first time that I went to the temple for the first time. I was writing and realized that it was the 26th of January that I went to the temple for the first time.

Change Week

Hey fam,

Well its been a long but very productive and succesful week. We had our baptism and everything went perfect. He was ready since the moment he went to church on the first of the year. His name is Luis Eduardo and he came here from TX and has plans to go back in the next 5 or 6 months but was born here so he came back to visit for a while. I already told you all a lot about him. He made it super easy to teach him everything cuz he just has a super open heart, and amazing support. Today we went to the temple.... again as a zone and since we are so many missionaries we ended having to rent 2 buses and so we had a little extra space so we called up and invited all the recent converts of the stake and ended up taking 2 families and our baptism from saturday and the member girlfriend. Its was an incredible experience. One the moms of the familes just broke down in tears with her little 3 year old daughter because the temple was just so beautiful. It kinda made the whole experience really spiritual. Its looking so much better now with the angel... driveway, plants and all kinds of good stuff.
Other then that great news... we not much has happened. I spent a lot of time trying to say bye to members since im pretty sure im out this change since i have nearly 6 months in my area. Plus its just two more changes that I have left. The whole mission has been really stuggling on baptisms lately since we changed the focus on just families and no more kids... at all. Its dropped our numbers but we will see how the Zone Leader council goes this next week with one of the Area 70... Elder Fallebela... is gonna come and most likely shave us but its gonna be good, and interesting to see what he has to say.
This whole week ive been getting up early to do exercized... in this case... laundry haha... since all my clothes have been sitting in my suitcase forever they smell all dusty and weird so i started little by little washing all my clothes by hand on our pila and im gonna be finishing today soo thats gonna be a relief but im gonna be going to my last area smellin super good haha
Ive grown to love washing my clothes by hand and not that i got a technique goin on and it doesnt hurt my fingers anymore... its been really nice!
Im really gonna miss my comp Elder Cac... it took us a while to get the companionship going but we get a long really well and were for sure gonna miss each other. Im just really hoping that the lord takes me out of the city to finish my mission. Thats all i want. Id even be down for going to the south again! We will see and find out tomorrow night i guess.
Anyways.... thats about all the good stuff. I sure do love you all very much though and hope everything is going well!!

Love you fam

Love,
Elder Gardner