Baptisms

Hola Familia y Amigos,

 

First of all I just want to say Hi to all my family and Friends in Lake Powell right now without me :( haha nah im jealous and all but I know this is where im supposed to be and there will be PLENTY of summers to come that we will be able to live up just as much! Lake Powell aint goin anywhere... right??

Well im of course sending a lot of pictures this week because I forgot last week but as far as words... man i dont know where to start! We had another baptism this saturday of Jose Luis Amador and what a great experience once again that was. The plan was to have one of the recent converts and a good friend of Elder Contreras and mine in the ward baptize him but he had some problems getting out to SabanaGrande for some reason with school so Elder Contreras baptized him. The baptism though it was just as amazing as the baptism of his brother but I just keep picturing him as bryson and just love him the same way because not only does he need it becasue of his family situation but it helps me too! Jose is 13, so the same age as Bryson so that has been a really fun experience teaching him the lessons cuz Im able to get over the nervousness of my spanish and just kinda let Elder Contreras correct my conjugations but yeah its been really fun and I think I have learned the most from teaching him because I really studied hard in Predicad Mi Evangelio so that I knew what i wanted to say and what not but ive sure been growing a lot in spanish and not really even noticing it. Its been fun though and I no longer worry about saying things wrong, but just having patience with my companion and how much he DOES correct me. Its good though because most of the other Latinos here will just pretend like its correct and catch the just of everything... but this has been a really good, frustrating, fun, spirit, emotional, physical strengthening companionship. We find out tomorrow night where were gonnna go for Cambios, whether i stay here and get a new companion, or I go and he stays... could go any way so who knows... hes been here for 3 almost 4 months now so I think i know whats gonna happen and Im a little nervous but Im excited and ready!!

Well a little more about this week and what happened... we did a lot of divisions because supposedly the whole missionary program is changing... new videos that the church made, all kinds of new teaching material and everything so Elder Contreras was called in by President Chaverri to be there with the Zone Leaders and all to go over everything for 2 days. So I went on divisions with an Elder Quenta form Bolivia, he goes home tomorrow, so of course he was a bit Baggy but he is a really good missionary and I brought him back here to our area and we had some of our last citas with Jose Luis and other appointments and then just contacting but I sure did learn a lot from him. His spanish was a whole lot harder to understand and he never had the desire to learn english on his mission so that was a bit tough coming from my companionship because my companion is able to really work with me and supprisingly knows a lot of english for only having 7 months in his mission. But nah it was good, lots of different contacting techniques thats for sure! We placed 2 Books of Mormons and have an appointment with a familly of 9 this week, thanks to the help of Elder Quenta, so we will see how that goes!

Its been raing A LOT this past week and been having to wash a lot more clothes so my hands are getting pretty torn up haha but im stating to get the washboard technique down but just be greatful for them washing mashines that you all have haha. Oh and the daughter of our Concinera (cooking lady) whom are not member, are starting to have a lot of questions about what were doing, and we brought our photos over one night before dinner this week and she jacked one of our pictures of just me and Elder contreras that we had taken up in Aposonigua and just put it up on her little banister with her other pictures without even asking haha but it was cool and of course we were cool with that. Weve been able to develop a friendship and trust with her and her daughter. In fact her daughter, which is 23, wants to start learning English too so I offered to have a lesson or two a week with her. We also told them that we have some videos that we want to watch witht them..."because we dont have TV" and of course they are just simple movies about our church but yeah its been going good. We dont want to do anything to affend her just because her food is so amazing and is sooooo much needed haha but I pray the the lord will provide the way for us to touch their hearts and be able to teach them now that we have let them know that we are normal people, even though we have the title here "the mormons" but they know that now and its all good. Lots of progress is being made

 Not much more happened this week, it was just a really fast week once again and were getting ready to have changes now.. its hard to believe that my first Cambio is already up! ¡Que Rapido! I just want to share my short and simple testimony once agian with my family and friends in lake powell right now for family night, and all the other family and friends that read this later! I know that this church that I am in this foreign country, learning this foreign language for... is the church of Jesus Christ and it is the only true church on this earth. I know that because I look at the members of the church here, and especially these 2 new young boys that we have brought closer to christ, and the happiness that they have is unmatchless. I dont know how to describe my happiness that I have, it truely is a lot of blood sweat and tears.. but its also a lot of physical, emotional, and especially spritual growth and there is nowhere else that I would rather be. I only have almost 2 months here.. but I have seen the hand of the Lord in this great and marvelous work and their is no one else I would rather be serving other then my Brother, savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and my Father in Heaven! I especially know that prayers are HEARD and ANSWERED! Thats my new short and simple testimony in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Now thank you everyone for the prayers and support! They are felt and appreciated! And for those of you on the Lake.. I sure do love EACH and EVERY one of you and dont you dare forget that! Dont have too much fun without me and save some water for when I get back aight!

 

Love yall
Cuidense

 

 

My first baptism!

Hola Familia y Amigos,

Well wow what an amazing week! I feel like such an idiot though first off because I forgot my Camera cord at our house and I have the most amazing baptism pictures and some pictures with the kids here in the ward...ugh I'm so mad at myself, I didn't realize it till we were sitting in the church here in Teguc. I'm sorry! Anyways the baptism of Hugo Jose Amador Ordoñez went just perfect, there are so many things that I could say and I put all 4 of his names because they now mean more then just names to me. Just this last Saturday I actually performed my first baptism! I wish everyone of you could have been there because the baptisms here are not like they are in the states, there really is so much I could say and with out pictures it wouldn't make sense to all of you so next week I will for sure have some good pics for you. We have anther baptism of Jose Luis, who is the 13 year old brother of Hugo. I get all the ages mixed up and so I told you wrong last week. Hugo is 16 too but wow the past 2 weeks, since postponing the baptism of Hugo because he had drunk coffee, we have seen miracles. Let me first just explain what the atmosphere is like when we teach him, Gerson (member friend of Hugo), and Jose Luis (the little brother of Hugo). This house is almost literaly in a swampy area and there are a total of 10 people living in a house about the size of our upstairs living room and kitchen... their house is too far away to be able to get purified water so they just have barrels around the corners of the house to catch the rain for their drinking and bathing water... they have about 15 chickens that just run around the yard all the time. Hugo and Jose have never known their dad and their mom is just a sweet lady and was baptized about 20 years ago but doesn't seem to want anything now. His now stepdad you could say, we think is abusive because all the money that Hugo and the family makes from their little jobs goes to him and his grandpa, who is 60 and all he does is drink. There hasn't been a time yet that I have seen him when he is not drunk. He promises us every week that he will stop drinking so that he can come to church again with his grandsons because he was baptized about 30 years ago or so... he says. There are 3 women there too and we know one is the mom of Hugo and Jose but were not sure who the other two are whether they are aunts or what... I have pictures of this whole family so you will just have to wait but there are 2 little girls that live there too, and I just feel so bad, but they are sooo cute! Agh!! Anyways this is what we teach with and yeah having 2 drunks there when we are trying to teach is nearly impossible but this week we obviously found it and were able to get Hugo, Gerson, and Luis to keep up with the commitments to read and pray together because Jose cant read, but he has such a stong heart and testimony and I'm looking forward to his baptism... There is so much I could say and again I'm sorry I don't have pictures. Next week!

Other news of things that happened this week. The most amazing experience... outside of my first baptism of course, happened earlier this last week on Thursday when I met the Stake President of the stake center that we meet at every Thursday and Monday for our meetings. He felt like he needed to talk with us and began telling us a story. This stake presidents father was baptized about 30 years ago by and Elder Young and his companion. This Elder Young is the brother of Steve Young, and also the same Bro. Young that teaches and taught me in my Preach My Gospel class in Iggys stake center. This now stake president was only 3 years old when the missionaries were there and his dad was baptized and 17 years after that.. he went to serve his mission in Guatemala City. He went on to tell us of a story from the last 3 months of his mission where he started off working in the Mission Office but pleaded with the Mission President to put him in the toughest area with a missionary that is having a hard time and could use some help. Through inspiration he was put in an area that I relate as being like Sabanagrande more or less because they hadn't had baptisms in 6 months and no current investigators. The first month and a half (first change) they had no success at all and one day he got on his knees and plead with his father in heaven and in tears asked for help in this area. That same weekend when they started to get down on themselves once again he felt like he needed to go contact in this area about 5 miles away from their house and so they went and with Book of Mormons in their hands they went and ended up finding a man, with a family of 4 just in this puny little house, they sang, shared a message and the man asked a lot about the Book of Mormon. Elder Tores (this now stake president) borrowed him a book of mormon in exchange for a return appt and of course he was ok with it. That night this man read and read and read this Book of Mormon till 3 or 4 in the morning he said and then eventually fell asleep with the book of mormon open and on his chest and had a dream... He said that a man named moroni came to him in this dream and told him that this Book of Mormon is the words of god and that the things that Elder Tores had said were true! Simple enough but when that man woke up the next morning he told everyone in this area... family, friends and up to about 40 people all before Elder Torez came back for the return appointment. When they returned they had 40 or more new investigators and make a really long story short... they baptized all but 4 people that were there that day on that return appt and the Saturday before Elder Torez went home he and his companion had 16 people lined up to be baptized!!! Tell me that Miracles don't happen. We have all heard stories like this but I tried my best to hold back my tears as this story (that was told in all spanish believe it or not) truely touched my heart. Only because I look at this now and I know the man who converted his father. This is such a small world tied together by the good word and work of God! I know this church to be true and hope this story touched your heart as it did mine!

I don't know what else I can say, I didn't want to waste time telling of the boring and not important things and rather my testimony and story that has changed my mission for good. There will be more to come I'm sure but wow my heart is just so full right now again just writing this! Baptism really is the cleansing of sins and a rebirth for those who accept this gospel as Hugo did this week. I was able to say those sacred words of the baptismal prayer and watch him come up out of the water with a smile on his face and to give him a hug in front of the only 14 members that we had there at the service! But regardless... I know that it was that moment that I have been living for.. the motivation for leaving my family and friends for the 2 short years that I have and I know without a doubt that this is the church of Jesus Christ and is the only true church! There isn't anything else that I want to say but that I love you all and thank you for the prayers and support that I have been receiving. I know the power of the Gift of Tongues that I have been blessed with is REAL!

Love your servant... Elder Gardner

One month - can't believe it!

Hey Fam and Friends,

 

Well this was quite the week. Its hard to think of all the things that happen in a week when we only have an hour or so and the computers are really slow. But regardless it was a really good week and I'm seeing more and more of what its like to be a missionary here in a foreign country and as much as it is different and not necessarily what I expected... its fun. There are ALOT of bad missionaries and very few good missionaries to be honest and its kinda sad because some of them have been here 22 or 23 months and are getting ready to go home and all they can say is bad things about the church and their missions but at the same time its been good for me because I have a really good companion who has been through a lot himself and helps me really know and realize who I should be and its truely a blessing to have a native companion as my first.

Anyways some updates about the ward this week... Laura didnt show up yesterday but I think its mostly because we werent able to get in to meet with her since early last week because Elder Contreras has been really sick and its been raining a lot so its tough. When we went by on Saturday, planning on teaching Lesson 3, her boyfriend I guess and 3 other guys were playing cards and betting and I think they might have been drinking too so we felt it wasnt right for us to stay because we really needed the spirit for this lesson and there's no way it could have been there in those circumstances. So we just said Hi to them, talked for a few minutes and sadly had to just tell Laura after she came out to meet us with a big smile on her face and happy to see us that we were just stopping by to check up and see how everything was going and if there was anything that we could do...so that was hard but were hoping we can have more success with her this week. Its just tough becasue we cant make our way through her boyfriend to get them both to sit down and listen. We truely know that the Lord has his hand in this situation and he is working on her too and I have faith enough to know that if its right, things will work out.

Regardless we do have 2 baptisms coming up this month. One this Saturday with Hugo and another later this month with Jose... they are both 17 and cousins and they have been investigating for quite a while before and would show up to church every once and a while so thats why it kinda snuck up but they both have had a really strong desire to be baptized because of the example of their 14 year old cousin Herson... who is just truely a stud and such a great kid! I love him... me and him have become good friends now because he really wants to learn english so now every Saturday before the institute class that the branch or ward has every Saturday I set it up to teach an english class and only had 3 students this last saturday but it was fun and I think I learn more then them but they love learning English and their pronunciation is hilarious sometimes because they really have never tried before but its fun! So yeah we have the baptism of Hugo this Saturday as long as he sticks with his promise to not drink any Coffee this week, we had to post pone it last Saturday because he drank some, but he has promised so we will see!

Other then that nothing much more is happening. Weve have 3 missionaries in the Hospital this last week because of Dengue from the Mosquitos and one latin was actually really close to dying but by a miracle litteraly he was able to recover and then one Greengo just found out he has it today and hes got just this nasty rash all over his body and he is super weak and cant really do anything but I dont think he has it as bad as the other but its scary! Everything is going good for me though and Im loving it more and more this week. To be honest we have good and bad days but this week was just full of good ones because I have learned to use my testimony and the reasons why I am here to put the smile on my face and give me the motivation that I need!

K well thats about it, I dont have alot of time but know that I love you all and appreciate the prayers and support!

 

Love Elder Gardner

 

Lots of rain

Alright where to start....

Well another short week out here in the field! Oh and we got a new house. Our Pila (the first attached picture) is alot smaller at this house but the house its self is really really nice compared to our other one. I have pics attached of it! I really cant believe its been 2 weeks tomorrow already. Time flys by when your busy i guess! We are trying to stay as busy as possible and its tough when we cant find us investigators in our area! We finally struck what we thought was success up in a village called Aposonigua (I think thats how you spell it, thats how it sounds) which is about a 3 mile HIKE up the mountain behind our house and some of the pics attached are from that hike that we have to take almost every day to teach these two families that we found. One is familia Avila, with Laura (the mom) with her one 6 year old daughter Alexandria and then the cousin of Alexandria, Lauras husbands brother, and it is just so crazy how we found them. We went up initially looking for and Hermana Silvia that we had talked to a couple days before and it was pouring down raind and we couldnt find her so we stopped at this house (familia Avila) and Laura of course imidiately invited us in and made us hot chocolate and everything and we felt like it would be good to at least sing a song with her and tell her what were doing and what our message is and she was totally accepting of it and same with her nephew, but the only problem that we have now is that her husband does not like us at all and so thats tought. Laura is the best ever though. Anyways so she told us where this other Hermana that we were looking for lived but she wasnt there when we left and it was getting late and we had that 3 mile hike back home so we got on our way but I have truelly been able to see the hand of the lord and how he puts us where we need to be at the right time. I know that to be true! This last week we were able to meet with her a couple times and she is totally accepting to everything and same with her nephew, who is 17, and on saturday we had an amazing lesson with her and got accross the message that she needs to be baptized but then her husband got home and we knew that it was time for us to go. So we will have to see if we can set a date and get her to come to church with us this next week maybe! She did say that is catholic and doesnt feel a need yet but its early and we just need prayers now to soften the heart of her husband. Were hoping to get her nephew too but im not sure how that will go. We didnt want to go to far saturday because her nephew was at work so it was only her. Wish us luck and keep her and us in your prayers this next week. This area that we are in has even been said by Pres. Chaverri to be the toughest area in the mission and we want so bad to show him up and find us a family but we cant! Ugh its frustrating but we are trying and trying to work in these circumstances now where it is raining every day where were at and tracting is impossible cuz when it rains...it RAINS and people dont want to let us in so its tough dealing with that!

This week has been fun and one heck of another adventure. I sometimes feel like were just camping and we eat the same stinkin thing every time. Sandwhiches, Aguacate (avacado) some ham and cheese, they are good but every stikin meal it gets old. Living an hour and a half away from everything we just have to live off of the pulperias (little stores i guess) and all they have is like juices, bread, some select meat, and cookies and candy. So we are trying to be creative and MOM the avacados really are soo dang good here. WOW! haha Um the clouds or Fog has taken over Sabannagrande and when that happens it just rains all the time so I have a pic of the streets and what it looks like with the fog everywhere, its soo cool but we only have a tin roof over our heads so it gets sooo dang loud when it rains in our house but iv always loved the rain its its cool. Our street is litterally a river when it rains. The language is coming really really fast. Im finally getting the point where I can almost understand everything for the most part but its just responding that I have the problem. I would have more pictures of the people but Im still just trying to get to know them and develop that friendship before I can get pics with them if you know what I mean. So I will work on that. Church was good this week, we just had it at our little chapel there in sabanna grande and we had a total of i think 14 there and I blessed the bread and water and then one of the new members, Noel, who I have become really close with passed it. He has been studying english at the University here so he pretty much understands everything and is in SabannaGrande every weekend so im able to help him out with everything when he comes over. Hes 20 and just waiting till feb to submit his papers because he has to be a member for a year before he can submit his papers. He is such a stud though!

Iv been having a lot of fun here and it only gets better. Every monday and thursday we have to travel back to Teguc to meet with our zone and today before email we played some soccer at the church, which was fun. I feel like sometimes we are starving ourselves because we dont have a Concinera, Cooking lady basically, so its tough. We are headed to got baliadas right after this though.

There is so much that I could talk about and im honelstly not going to be able to send an email like I did last time, every time obviously. But Im sending a buch of pics and hope they all work.

I need to emial everyone else now so until next week!

Thanks for all the support!

Love you alll soooo much!

Love Elder Gardner... Muah

1st letter from Teg-Honduras

Hola!!

 

Well im here and safe! This country is beautiful! Let me just first say that I love it here so that whatever i say next wont scare ya because I definately did have a rude awakening but ahhh its just so new... and so...different! I love it!

Pres and Hna Chaverri are so awesome, I cant understand a single word that they say but i guess that will just have come with time haha Mom im sure its been a long week not being able to hear from me and not knowing if I made it safe but im fine! 

Im sure you are all wanting an update on just everything that I have been doing and so on day one we all got off the plane to Humidity that I have never been in before! It wasnt as hot as I thought it was going to be but its actually pretty nice here in Teguc for the most part... heat wise! After we got picked up by the president and his APs so we at least had some others who knew english. From there we went to the mission office and chilled for a little while while the president took the rest of the elders who were going home that day to the airport as well! I missed the other Elder Gardner by like 20 min but the Elder Brinton was at the airport picking us up so I met him. Anyways we eventually went and got lunch and then went to the mission home for a little nap, 1 hour, to prep for our first experience teaching with the Zone Leaders and their companions, I went out with Elder Thatcher, he is awesome, hes been out for just over a year and they had an appointment with 2 families so we hurried to an area called Las Palmas and I saw my first miracle! I dont even know whatto say about this country to describe it... its really busy and everyone are just crazy drivers. Dad remember in Mexico when we thought they were bad.... well here its 10 times worse haha, its fun though! Gotta love it right! So we went and met with Concepcion and Jose and their familes and wow we hiked up to their house that was basically just on the side of a hill in the ghetto to just a cement block with one big room and 4 large matresses and pathways around. They had been to their house once before and thats it and without even having to ask they had started reading and we taught them the 1st lesson obviously and they asked me to give the opening prayer and the first vision and my testimony when they needed it in the lesson which I was find with and really comfortable with once we got to know the families! The kids are just the cutest things you will ever see, its unbelievable! haha Yeah it was just a miracle because at the end we asked them to read 3 Nefi 11 and they said ok... come back tomorrow haha they are just so accepting.. everyone litterally!

Day 2... we got 13 nativo missionaries from the guatemala MTC and only 2 of them knew a little bit of english so we were able to talk to thme but that was an experience!

Day 3...we had a ton of just instruction in the mission office and then after we went to the mission home and kinda just hung the rest of the day while Hna Chaverri made this Huge dinner for all of us new missionaries and for all of our trainers that night and most of the missionaries took a nap and I just studied with elder Carter and Belnap. So later that night we ate dinner and then had a big ceremony of the Cambios or Transfers where basically they just told us who our companions were and where our areas were and all that! My companion is Elder Contreras, hes from Cost Rica and has 6 months on the mission! He is sooo good and he knows pretty good english, he understands it, just doesnt speak it very well! Me and him get along really well though! That night i was soooo sick, I dont know what it was but I just was not feeling good at all! I was just weak, headache and all of the above! Uh it was bad, then we had our hour and a half lonce ride to our area in Sabanna Grande, I was told that It is one of the toughest areas in the mission but oh well! I was stoked I just couldnt show it cuz I felt like crap! Elder Contreras gave me a blessing that night and I was eventually able to get to sleep so Im grateful for that!

Gosh there is so much that I want to tell you but this keyboard is sticky and I just dont know what you want to know!

Day 4...I started to feel a whole lot better but my companion woke up with a cold or fever or something. We started our day just going around talking to everyone and its amazing how accepting the people are here to listen to us and they know that wea re all servants of the lord! Every single person will stop what they are doing to listen to us and they will let us set up an appointment with them.. the problem is that Sabanna Grande is like a big village split by one fo the big highways here so the only way to find someone is to just get the best directions you can and then just hope you can find them again! its rare and frustrating but we are working really hard! Elder Contrerras has been in Sabanna Grande for 3 changes now and the most baptisms they had in one change was 4 so this time our goal is 5. They had one last change. Its a tough area because almost everyone is members.. but inactive! Or they just dont live by the commandments and its frustrating. There are some things that go on in Sabanna Grande that probably bad for me to write in an email so i wont but its sad! Really Sad! Later that day we did end up teaching 2 lessons and we walked a total of probably 6 miles to one part of the Colony, or village I guess to find a lady but we couldnt find her house but we talked with one lade to ask her if she knew here and she right off the bat invited us in and we taught her a lesson, its was sooo cool! Bien Marciso. She let us in when it was raining and starting to get dark and we left when it was downpouring, dark and we had about 3 miles to walk home.. haha but thats honduras for ya! I learn alot on the walks so it wasnt so bad but even wiht my umbrella I was SOAKED!! haha

Day 5.. I decided to wear my boots for the first time and that was awesome! I love them, they were really nice because it was raining once again almost all day! Gosh dang the country here is so beautiful! We walked...a long ways again and took plenty of pics! Our goal was to invite all the members and others to the conference on sunday, the church pays for a bus to come and get everyone, we just have to get everyone there! 

Day 6... Sunday... we woke up at 530 in order to catch a bus to go to the conference which was about another hour and half more south where its a whole lot hotter there then it is in our area. Its called san lorenzo and they have a big conference center for us meet in for big events like this. We wear our suits on sundays so by the time we got there and after the bus ride we were soaked! This heat is not somthing to just get used to! Ugh haha But Elder James B. Martino of the 70 spoke to us, he gave a talk in this last conference and I talked to him for a while afterwards and he served his mission in central america too,so that was cool! Good news though from that day was that we had a record beating 37 people show up from our area so that was exciting!

 

Ugh ok anyways today is our P'day and every Pday and Thursdays we have to travel back here to Teguc because my comp is the district leader so thats so fun to have to travel back here so much especially when its an hour and half ride and the bus is packed and we are usually standing up the whole time trying to read or whatever.

 

Anyways that was alot and thats what is new with me! Whats new with you family? I sure hope these pics work. We are able to make copies of photos and CDs here too so when I need to Ill send a CD home. The missionary that was before me was checking his facebook and everything but I just want to be strictly obedient and stick with just this but ugh thats frustrating that he was doing that! Anyways, they rarely have problems sending packages or letters or anything here so just use that address if you need to send me anything in the future! Letters take about 3 weeks when I send them and sometimes shorter to get them but I will send some out today or next week probably and we will see how that goes! When I got here I had a letter from Dad and Jade but that was it. It was just in the DearElder form so that was cool but we will have to see what happens when I go to send them back! K i dont know what else to say other then I officially do shower with a bucket at our house and our water for showers and all comes from the rain and gathers in that big cement box that I sent a pic of! haha it sucks but its now too bad once you get over the inital shock of having to pour freezing cold water over you early in the morning. The life of Honduras I guess... haha i love it. Im having fun and its tough, id be lying if I said I havent said I wanted to go home but my testimony got me here and its going to keep me here. Im fine, theirs good moments and theirs bad moments but its fun! Dont worry about me, just pray for me. I pray for you all every morning an night in spanish but its ok the lord listens by the intentions of our hearts, I have a testimony of that! Wish me luck this next week, we need investigators...we currently dont have any but we will try hard this next week!

 

 

Love your servant of the Lord!

Elder Gardner