cleaning the font

baptismal font

Jose Amador's baptism

Hugo's Baptism

Hugo's Baptism

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