Single digit countdown!

Hola Familia!!

Its been really hard to think about what to say because I cant believe im on a single digit countdown until im headed out of the USA! But...I'll save the best news for last... um this week has been really really good. Me and my new companionship 3-some since being a zone leader and since Elder Price left has been amazing! Its Elder Farley, Elder Nelson and I now and we have really grown close through planning our lessons, practice teaching in nothing but spanish now and just studying together! Elder Farley is from Montana and Elder Nelson is from Brigham city. Both amazing of course! Being zone leaders together has been such a blessing, we work really good together!

Last night at the Devotional we had yet another Apostle, which makes 4 in just 9 weeks that Have been here, Elder Robert D. Hales! He gave a great talk about obedience and the power of the Holy Ghost and the impact and change it can make in the conversion processes in the next two years! Obviously there is a ton of things I could say about his talk but in the end what hit me the most was his strong, sincere testimony! He is truely an apostle of God!

The TRC went really good last week, It never fails that we get really nervous right before the TRC's but somehow the lord just puts the words into our mouths and we truely learn the vitality that we are supposed to teach to the needs of the investigators not plan out certain lines that we say... just put the trust in the lord and somehow...someway he puts those words into our mouths! Im so greatful for everything that the MTC provides. Our teachers I never say much about but they are both so amazing. Brother Staples and Sister Gutierrez! I wish I could have you all meet them!

Oh this week we got to look through a scrapbook from a missionary that served in our mission and wow... Honduras is soooo green! The pictures that he had were from hikes that he took and all kinds of cool places he went where he looked over just huge landscapes of Honduras! Ive truely never been sooo excited, nervous, anxious, and of course stoked to go to one place in my life!

Well this week went by wayyyyy too fast! I dont even know what to say about it other then of course the long awaited flight plans! So me Elder Belnap and Carter leave the MTC at 8:30pm monday night and just chill at the airport all night till 12:50am when our flight to Atlanta Georgia leaves, and then we are in ATL till 6 somethin... which I believe is like 4 our time. So I think what Im going to plan on doing is just call you monday night when we are settled in and waiting in SLC just because I dont know if you want me calling at like 4 in the morning?? Let me know what you think I should do. We end up arriving in Honduras at like Noon i believe and who knows if President is going to have us call when we get there or not but ya just let me know what you would rather me do!

Sorry I dont have much to say this week im just so stoked for this upcoming change and Im sure my first week in Honduras I will have a WHOLE lot more to say! So forgive me! I cant believe my time here is up and im headed out finally! We are all so stoked! You have no idea!

Love Elder Gardner

Zone Leader

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Well I cant believe I will have my flight plans in less then 24 hours, I can not wait any longer! I never thought I’d say that and I can’t believe I’ve almost been out 2 months!! I only get 24 of these really?? This is ridiculous! I honestly feel that I send you an email every other day! It only gets harder and harder every week too because nothing new happens! Although the TRC's are the highlight of my week! Last weeks TRC went really well! Me and Elder Price ended up teaching with Hermana Reed (going to Spain) because her companion left to the Spain MTC already so she is the SOLO sister in our district! It went good though, its hard to teach in three-somes!

Oh and some bad news... Elder Price went home this last friday. I know he did the right thing but its always tough to see a missionary come in for 7 weeks and then have the guilt get to him and he had to go home! So up till Sunday I was the only zone leader over the 25 Elders and I just joined the companionship of Elder Belnap and Elder Carter but then on Sunday we had to make some changes due to Elder Price going home and so our Branch Presidency called Elder's Farley and Nelson to be the zone leaders with me so I got yet another companionship! But I love everyone in my district so its all good! 

The TRC tonight is the 2nd lesson in spanish for the first time and then next Wednesday is my last TRC before it becomes real.. with real investigators and real Baptism! Ahh words cannot express my excitement! Im Stoked! Estoy Animado!! So also with  the lesson tonight we have to teach how to give directions to the church, and in the lesson commit them to being baptized or setting a date, and then also tie the Word of Wisdom into the Plan of Salvation because our investigator just lost their brother and they strarted drinking! It will be interesting but Im stoked! I just love spanish so much! It truely is amazing how much the Lord has blessed me as far as the gift of tongues! I love it! I wrote Elder Cuello and Wilkins back in all spanish today with only having to look at the dictionary 3 or 4 times so its getting better. I realize that as soon as I get to Honduras its going to be a whole other story but whatever... I need it! I am just so ready to jump with both feet in and get goin! I have just developed the expectation that its going to be really hard for the first couple months but its all good! I’ve realized its all about attitude so I’m constantly working on that! The teacher that came and spoke to us about Honduras told us that the Honduranians(Thats what they are.. not Hondurans) they cut off the ends of their words a lot of the time and then with words that are too long.. they just say the first sound and the last sounds and just slur them together... haha so that will be interesting! 

Um something crazy though.. I have been reading the Book of Mormon every day consistantly obviously since I got here and I am having the coolest dreams ever... Remember the living scripture videos.. well those characters are litterally in my dreams! For example I was reading the story of Ammon in Alma and while I was reading I could picture the entire movie in my head and I don’t remember the last time I watched those or recalled them since I was like 10 or so... but its so awesome! Then of course that night I had dreams in half spanish and half english sometimes that are just of these stories! I just love the Book of Mormon, I read like 50 pages the other day while Elder Price was in interviews and what not and I got to the point that I was so into the stories that I forgot where I was! I pray everytime before I read that I will remember, apply and recognize the things I read about and I guess thats how the lord blesses me is with the rememberance of watching those movies as a kid! 

So thats my challenge and recommendation to you is to watch those movies...DAD, you sold them for what 12 years?? Watch them, it will help you to better understand and remember these stories! I dont know what else to say! The 9th, next wednesday, will be my last P-day in the US so I will let you know what time I head out and roughly what time I will be calling you from the airport but until then just wish me luck in the TRC tonight and know that all of you are in my prayers every single night! 

Love Elder Gardner

Your Servant of the lord!!

18 days left!!!

Hola Familia Gardner,

 

Ok so sorry about the emai last week, I know it was pretty lame! I had forgotten my email notes that I took of things that I wanted to say in the room. I forgot to tell you that me and Elder Price got called as Zone Leaders last week and then immediately got a new district of 11 elders! 3 headed to Peru and the rest to Mexico! They are all so awesome! So last thursday me and Elder Price did the whole tour and what not for the new elders and sundays are now our busiest days because of all the meetings! Every sunday we have to write a 3-5 min talk in spanish and now I dont know when im ever going to have time to do it!!

Anyways so the TRC went soooo good suprisingly! We didnt end up teaching the lady from Honduras but it did go really well! I think we got it down now and I feel really comfortable teaching the first lesson in spanish now! I just love spanish sooo much! Seriously!

So we just keep getting luckier and luckier.. last night for the Devotional we had Elder D. Todd Christopherson come and talk to us! He is a amazing, he served his mission in Argentina so he translates and records all his talks in spanish so we got the chance to listen to his last talk this conference in spanish and I felf pretty good as far as being able to understand what he said!

Im pretty sure I dont know how to say prayers in English anymore, I got asked in a meeting on sunday to give the prayer in english and I seriously had to think about what to say because I havent said a english prayer since the first week literally! Its awesome! The most commonly used words in my prayers have been confianza(Confidence) y Del don de lengua(The Gift of Tounges). I have felt the lords blessings just pour out upon me and I just love being here so much!

Get this... I can officially say that I get my FLIGHT PLANS next week! Next thursday, so a week from tomorrow we get our flight plans and then we are outtta here in 18 days!! I cant believe it! Yesterday we had a teacher that served in out mission come in and talk to us and almost braught us all to tears with the testimony and love that he shared with us about the people there! He showed us all kinds of stuff that he brought home and I cant even describe my EXCITEMENT that I have! Its Impossible! AHHH so stoked!

Now unluckily for us, you could say, tonight in the TRC we are teaching the 1st lesson again but to an investigator that doesnt believe in God! Ha im not sure how thats going to go but I guess we will just see! Now the Teacher we talked to that went to Honduras said that its very rare that you will run into someone who does not believe in God just because of the outstanding faith that they have!! All we are going to be doing is just basically showing them where to put that faith and sharing with them our message and we will be baptizing like crazy! Reguadless just wish us luck in the TRC tonight I guess and Ill be sure to let you know how it goes!

I know this church is true because I have felt the sprit of the Lord confirm that to me in my heart sooo strongly! I could never deny it! You all know that I am pretty emotional when it comes to talking about the church and my testimony but I havent been that way all the way until now! I have been searching, pondering, and praying about my personal scripture study in the Book of Mormon and I have had that spirit change my heart for good! Theres no doubt this church is true! I know its only been 6 weeks and my testimony and love for the people of Honduras and for this church hasnt even really begun yet but that is my growing testimony! ITS TRUE!!

 

 

I love you all so much!

Thanks for all the support! It means the world to me!!

 

Love Elder Gardner!

 

"The field is white, ready to harvest"

Que Paso??

 

Ok so im not sure where to start with this email! Believe it or not tonight is the night for us to teach the first lesson in spanish for the first time! Kinda crazy! Im stoked though, I think we are ready though! There is a lady actually from Honduras that comes to the TRC every wednesday nights at the same time that we come. Last week we didnt get her when we were teaching how to pray but who knows what will happen tonight. She doesnt even know how to speak english and she has cancer. We had one of our teachers, Hermana Gutierrez go talk to her and get her story for us because when you see her she is just one that you want to know more about if you know what I mean! She said that she come here to the MTC a couple nights a week just to literally feel the spirit that presides here with the missionaries! I guess some missionaries last week got her into tears because they had directed their message towards exactly what she was having problems with! This MTC is just so filled with the spirit! Our TRC went really good last week! The guy that we taught was the same guy we had the very first TRC and the lesson just went horrible!! We got really down on ourselves and it just didnt go well, but this last week we just told ourselves that we were going to go in there and go all out with this guys! Afterall it was the 2nd lesson which is some pretty deep stuff so we just knelt down in the hall of the TRC bulding and said a quick prayer that we would be able to have the spirit and remember what we had learned! I dont even know how to tell you how well that lesson went! Im not sure what we said or how we directed it but it really does seem like it was yesterday! We had to tie the Word of Wisdom into the lesson because he was a smoker and drinker! Let me just testify that the lord heard and answered that prayer and as we taught the lesson the spirit was just overwhelming almost! To say the least, this guy who shot us down last week, stood up and asked us for HUG's after the lesson! Ah it just went so good!

So one of the sisters from our district left monday to spain cuz she finally got her visa! Spain and Mexico are like the hardest countries to get visas for! Then theres Honduras and almost all of Central America that just nearly begg us to come in becasue thats what they live off of is tourism! I cant even tell you how stoked I am to get over there! I think I have 3 and half more weeks?? June 14th is our date to get out of here! Oh and this week in one of our classes we did a work shop and our teacher served in a Mexico mission and it was so awesome to just talk to him about the people there in cental America! He mentioned the fact that it says 6 times in the Book of Mormon that "the Field is white already to harvest" and that we have been called to gather these "Elect" people! D&C is so amazing! He promised us that we would have experiences where we find thos "Elect" people who are absolutely ready for our word! That the second they see us and hear our message the spirit will testify to them that this is real and true!

There are so many amazing missionary stories that we have been told that I wish I could tell you before I forget them but I NEVER have time! Im sorry! 

This is so hard! Im not sure what else to tell all you other then the fact that all is going well and wish me and Elder Price luck tonight as we teach the first lesson in spanish and know that you are ALWAYS in my prayers!

 

 

 

Te quierro Mucho!

 

Love Elder Gardner!!!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, what an impact.

Hola Familia,

 

Well its been getting harder and harder for me to come up with things to say in these emails because we do the same thing every day and Im sure It will be much easier in the mission field! Reguadless to sum it all up though this week was awesome! What im going to do for the next 4-5 weeks is just tell you of experiences or changes that I experience because it just gets boring telling you the same things every week! The spanish is coming along really well and every day it only gets better! I really enjoy learning spanish, Elder Price not so much but Im helping him! I think all of us in our district have come upon a change in ourselves, espeically our outlooks and attitudes towards the language and this work of the mission in general! ESPECIALLY ME! I say this not in a bad way but in a way that really is Humbling! The end of last week and up until like monday I had been praying and praying like crazy for humility and to become more christlike! My answer came last night...

Last night was the Tuesday night devotional and like I said last week its always a suprise of who we are going to have come and speak to us! Me and Elder Price were a little late to getting in line to get into the devotional so we were way back in the line! We finally make it in and the Teleprompters arent up so we figures it wasnt anyone important (I know thats messed up but sometimes we get people who we have never heard of). Anyways we get sitting down and they announce that we need to all stand when the apostle enters so then we knew it infact was going to be one of the twelve we were hoping! The highlight of my entire week came last night at 7 whe Elder Jeffery R. Holland came into the room and everyone stood up and you could hear the reverent whisperings of ahhhhhs! We had just watched a talk of his that he gave to the MTC in 2000 on "The Miracle of a Mission" and he thuroughly chastised everyone but in the most christlike way possible! Ever since then we have been just wishing that Elder Holland would come talk to us and sure enough we got lucky again! He only comes like once every 6-8 months or so and seriously I am getting so lucky! Elder Tom Perry... and now Elder Holland! Ah anyways... that man has the strongest most powerful testimony of missionary work then any apostle in this church! He spoke to us for an hour and 10 minutes with no notes or anything and somehow made it sound organized! He spoke to us telling us that we need to have the vision of what we want to be in two years when we get home and to experience the change NOW! I wish there was more that I could share about that talk from the 2 pages of notes that I took but something about that talk struck us all really hard becasue I felt, and continue to feel the impact that he had on all of us last night!

Thats enough about that though! I forget to tell you what all I do on wednesdays after the temple, laundry, and writing letters! Our Zone has the TRC night! Training Resource Center or something like that! What we do is we have a task and a lesson that we teach and do each week! This week me and Elder Price have been working on the 2nd lesson still just in English this time and then next week we go back the first lesson and teach it in spanish! Haha im ready and stoked! I think Elder Price is a little nervous cuz he's still having a hard time with the spanish but the truth is he knows a whole lot more then he thinks he does! But anyways... this week we also have a spanish task.. which is Teaching how to pray in spanish! I've been practicing like crazy and i think iv got it down! This is what I have been looking forward to, and still look forward to do out in the field probably more then baptising itself! Being able to teach little kids, or anyone in general how to pray is going to be the best! We all know the strong testimony that I have for prayer and I just cant wait!

 

Oh and the district above us left this monday morning at 5am  for Argentina! Belive it or not they just got there this morning after their 21 hr flight! Thats crazy! I dont know how anyone could sit on a plane for 21 hours! Im so stoked and excited for them though!

 

Ok let me just say how thankful I am for the package! I did get it friday so it worked out perfectly because those oreo cookies would have tasted more like the mints then anything! Those cookies were so amazing!

Mom Im so glad you got my card and had a good mothers day!

Dad how was your birthday? you got my card too right??

Oh an I do see tucker almost every day! I've run into Elder Taylor King a couple of times too and he acually tested up and got put into the advances spanish class... so thats awesome!

GO LAKERS!!!! They SWEPT the Jazz is what I heard! hahaha poor jazz!

You all better keep me posted on the Lakers upcoming series with the Suns! I have become the go to man for the game updates! So keep it up Dani! Thanks so much!

I actually got this email out in good time but I gotta go change my laundry now so I will look forward to seeing the DearElders and letters hopefully throughout this week!

Know that I have such a strong testimony of this church and everything it teaches! Im having a blast and havent regretted one moment being here! Thanks for all the support!

 

I love you all!!

 

Love your servant of the lord!!

 

Elder Gardner

Gift of Tongues in Action

Hola mi Familia!!

 

Let me just first of all tell you what I am greatful for! haha I have never been so greatful in my life to be learning spanish! On our floor where our classroom is are all the cantonese, korean, and Japanese speakers! Oh my... I am so greatful and happy about my calling and that I am learning spanish! Im not sure if they do that for a reason, being that it gives the Spanish speakers a boost of confidence you could say! Wow i sure do give them all the credit in the world though.. not only for learning those languages but for stayin here for 12 weeks or more! Dang! Dont get me wrong I love it here and its fun learning spanish it really is but I thank our Father in Heaven every day for my calling!

Just more of an update about how this week went... I finally broke 200lbs haha. 204 actually. Im not sure if its someithing to be proud of or not here in the MTC but for me it is! I have weighed between 185 and 195 for the past year or more! Anyways I guess thats what sitting in a classroom for 8-10 hrs a day and eating "massive" ammounts of food (Cmon you know me)! Its seriously is such a good experiece being here! I cant believe i've been here three weeks already! It seems like just yesterday I was sending the last email!

Anyways um we had our fast sunday and I was able to completely bare my testimony in Spanish, I got up not knowing at all what I was going to say but let me just tell you of the power of the gift of tongues that I have been blessed with! Everyone else that had gone before me had been here for 6-8 weeks already but ya know theres nothing you have to loose here in the MTC so I did it and its like all the things, words, and sayings that I have been learning just came back to me as I got up there! It was a really good experience though, and probably the first time in the past year that I have bore my testimony and not balled my eyes out! It must have something to do with the fact I was trying the whole time to translast what I would normally say in english! It was good too! Elder Price went right after me and for as much as he thinks he doesnt know... he did really good! I was able to understand for the first time everything that everyone was saying! It was awesome!

Me and Elder Price gave the lesson in our District meeting this week on Prayer! What is it with me and giving talks or lessons on Prayer? I agree that if my testimony is strong in one area especially it would be in prayer because I know for a fact he hears and answers our prayers! Maybe thats why and it did go really well suprisingly! Since we realized an hour or two before that we were called to give the lesson! Were getting better and better and winging things like that though as a companionship though!

The days are getting faster and faster now... they literally are just blening in now! Having wednesday be our P-day is definately the best day to have it! Right in the middle of the week really helps the weeks fly by! Oh and about the last email when I got the door for Elder L. Tom Perry... no I did not get to shake his hand! I wish!! This weeks devotional was just a 70! I guess we cant have that good of luck to have two apostles right after each other! Rumor has it though that Elder Bednar will be coming before we leave! Im looking forward to that!

Not much more has happened this week, its hard to update you on things here when we do the same exact things every week! I am learning a lot though and its only getting easier it seems! 

I love you all! Thanks for the support!

 

 

 

Gotta go now! But it will be wednesday again before you know it!

Muah muah muah!

Love Elder Gardner!!!