The last day with my trainer

on our last day together they hiked to the top of there area for these photoes

My New Companion elder Broderick from Page Arizona area

We are comps in Sabannagrande

A day with the President

Hola Familia y Amigos!

 

Well today I only have time to write one email because we just barely got back to our area, have dinner in just a bit and have other things that me and Elder Broderick need to do tonight. These P Days just go by way too fast. Today though I had Hijos de Heleman though, and thats where all the missionaries that came at the same time get together sometime usually in your second change and we all went up with President and his wife to see the Giant Statue of Jesus Christ and this big park thats up there just to go take pictures and what now so that was fun and I did get some good pictures. Afterwards we all went and had lunch on President of course and we all got Porpusas, just these really good tortilla and chicken, and cheese lookin things and wow that was just delicious! I got to see the other Greengos that I came with, Elder Carter and Belnap again, and they have been in the south where its just hotter then hot all the time and both of them have lost so much weight... wow! Iv pretty much stayed the same, if not just lost muscle weight but oh well! It was fun to see all them again!

So this last week we were supposed to have divisiones with our Zone leaders and have one come out to the area with me and the other go work another area with Elder Broderick... well the morning that we went to Teguc to go pick them up to head back out to SabanaGrande the Teachers had just started a giant March... just thousands of teachers and they were of course blocking all of the Roads and doing all kind of stupid things to cause attention and so we were stuck in Teguc for a day but it was good to go and work in the area of the Zone Leaders again with Elder Urbina, from Honduras, a 26 year old Convert... hes a really hard worker and I just loved working with him, its just really tough though because they have so much success there in the city, and the members are just soooo helpful for them, they NEVER contact, they just go to a Members house and get like 10 new families to teach... it was so incredible for me to see that! The members here in our area unfortunately know the attitude and have the attitude of everyone else here in SabanaGrande and truethfully they dont want to affend their friends, or something to that affect and so they never help us... it also doesnt help that we only have 18 or 19 total at church every sunday and hardly anyone in the church to recieve the Santa Cena, Sacrament! 

Anyways the mission is so great! I know the lord has put me here in this area as a trial of my faith thats for sure. But Im hangin in there and I KNOW that we are doing what we need to do, its just the people here dont want to hear it, or already have their own judgements about the church and will refuse to listen. Reguadless... we were called her to TEACH and thats exactly what we are doing, or trying all we can to do! 

So an update on Laura too... she is reading the Liahona, or the Ensign and I gave her the General Conference Ensign and she just loves it... cuz obviously this last one really focussed on the mothers and parents and she is just so amazed because she is starting to see the big picture of our chuch! Its been such a blessing to see her grow.. but we are still just stuck in the mud with her becasue we never get to talk to her husband and she hasnt had any success talking with him about marriage! But we still make the hike every other day and she is starting to make us and give us food now so its even better! I just have gained such a love for her and her spirit, It just makes me so sad that we cant move forward, cuz she really is MORE then ready! 

Thats about it... and I gotta run now but ugh I love the mission so much, trust me when I say that and know that I love you all so much and pray for you every single day! Truthfully! The lord truely is teaching me a hard but very humbling lesson right now but im so greatful that I have this chance to be here! Ah I love this church! 

Until next week! Cuidense todos!

les quierro!

 

Love Elder Gardner

 

PS sorry no photos, I have so many I want to send but dont have time!  

hours of contacting

Hey Fam,

Alright well this week sure did go fast.. Wow! But I went through my journal entries this week to come up with stuff to tell you because I still haven’t missed a single day in the mission yet! It really has become my best friend out here, sometimes it’s hard to come up with things cuz of how tired we are some nights but I love writing!

To start of this week, we got invited to come over to a Noche de Hogar, Family Home Evening, by one of the members and we were stoked about that, until we showed up from a long day and she tells us she didn’t have time to prepare a lesson so she asked us to give a short lesson. Turned out to be perfect because Elder Broderick had mentioned a game that he had played in the south with some small young families and so we played this little charity game and had every write their names, write something positive about themselves and then just pass it around to everyone else for them to write something positive on it too. Hermana Lidia, the mom, or Grandma rather, was brought to tears watching her family have fun and start to show love towards to each other for the first time in a long time and it just turned out to be such a spiritual lesson as we bore testimony of the strength of families and importance too, it really made me think about the things that we really do have back home, and then to see what they have... truly was yet another humbling experience!

This week in our contacting we decided to change our tactic to something different then the plan of salvation and really just focus and push the Book of Mormon on everyone, turns out that was exactly what we needed. Every morning in our studies we would study about the book of Mormon and how to better use it in our teaching and I really learned a lot. Earlier in the week we had almost straight contacting and we started just going all out to introduce everyone to the Book of Mormon and earlier for literally 4 hours straight one after noon we just did all we could to talk to everyone about what we have and how rare this possession really is... we had no success at all... until after the trial of our faith. It was literally the last 2 housed that we contacted that we got into and taught two just really powerful lessons. Now you probably think that that sounds wrong to contact for 4 hours and not get into the houses, especially here in Central America.. But its amazing how caught up the people in our area are in the traditions of their fathers. The majorities of the people have been talked to once before and just tell us they have their own church or they think that our church is of a man and they don’t want to listen to us. We have seen people in their houses and get up and run out of the room when we show up. I’m not one to complain but just to explain what happens when we don’t have success here. Its hard and gets to us sometimes but it never fails that we do get into that one house and talk to them about this amazing book that we have! We placed almost 10 book of Mormons this week, the hard part is getting the people to tell us a time when we can come back and they will actually be there. Regardless... I know we are doing what we need to and fasting and praying a lot to find people and I’m sure we will strike this golden family eventually!

Speaking of Golden people... Our little Diamond in the Rough from last change that we make the 45 min Hike every other day for... accepted baptism this last week, I just forgot to tell you last week. But right now we are just working on finding a time to talk to her husband to get them just married by the law! Its been really hard to talk to him because he is never home, but she told me and Elder Broderick that she read in the BOM and prayed about it and KNOWS that its true! She ALWAYS reads everything that we give her and it just was the most spiritual lesson when she basically bore her testimony to us about the fact that she knows that our church is the true church and so we of course felt prompted to ask her to get baptized and if it weren’t for her marriage she would be baptized! She is just so amazing to us and truly has become a really good friend of ours, its always worth the 45 min hike! Really is!

Something funny for ya’ll too ha-ha our neighbor and Cocinera lady had her birthday on Friday and invited us over for her party later that night; we were stoked about that cuz we had seen the cake and all the food that she had bought. Ha so we show up for dinner at our usual time and there’s all kinds of family and friends there and they are just blasting music and sitting in a big circle talking and what not! So we were starving so we go in and have some food and while we are eating everyone is asking us if we want a beer and almost forcing us to take one, which is dumb because they all know we cant have coffee... but they try to give us beer? ha its was funny and then when we finished they tell us to go in and start dancing so Elder Broderick jumps up and goes into the room and starts just dancing really funny and of course all these Latinos just love it because we are both just as greengo as they get and here we are dancing and making fools of ourselves. Ah it just was so much fun and now we know that the next time we run into anyone that was there that they will invite us in because they know that we are NORMAL people and we know how to have fun to. But who knows if we were in the wrong for having a little fun but its was worth is! Cake and food was amazing! ha-ha

Anyway that’s about it and I’m about out of time, but for everyone that is reading my emails... thank you all for your support and prayers. They are being answered... yo les prometo! Yo se que este Iglecia is the Iglecia de JESUCRISTO y El nos ama. Dios es nuestra padre celestial y tiene un plan para nosostros. Un plan para felicidad, un plan de misericordia! Tenemos lo mismo Iglecia de Jesucristo su mismo establecio en la tierra.

Sorry i just felt like doing a little Spanish there but I love you all, really really do! I hope you all have an amazing week and I love you all so much!

Cuidense!!

Love Elder Gardner

New recipes

¿Que onda?

Another week in the book and Ill be Celebrating 4 months this week, Its just so crazy. My comp celebrated 8 months in the mission today so we went and got a bunch of Baleadas this morning with another Elder in our Zone that has the same amount of time. I still havent heard a word or anything about how the other two Elders that I came with are doing? Ive been wanting to but they are both in the south and im sure just sweating like none other!

Mom you sure would be proud of your son this week though. We talked to our President of the Branch here, another Senior Missionary Couple, from El Salvador because he was a Chef at Hotels and all kinds of places before his mission and Baptism into the church and so we talked him into teaching us simple, cheap, but DELICIOUS meals to make so this week he has taught us how to make Arroz con Pollo and Spaghetti with this special sauce... ah they just were the best! They are simple and we could of course figure out how to make these things but he truely just has the touch. Iv been using that recipie box that you gave me mom and just writing down all these things and just adding them up. One of these days since I have the recipie to the Double Chocolate Chip cookies and Ill just have to find all of the ingredients here in the city one PDay but we let our Neighbor and Cocinera know that we will need to use her stove to cook them and then we would just watch a movie of the church with them and they were all for that so were stoked about that! The truth is Honduras doesnt know what real cookies are here, compared to those cookies anyways. Im so excited to do that cuz I just crave every day some good old american cookies sometimes haha!

Not much more happened this week just a lot of just contacting and no success yet! Its getting frustrating and old but im determined that as long as we just keep doing what we need to do, the Lord will bless us! Its hard at times especially when the Branch President here himself tells us that there is no hope and that the people in our area just dont want anything. But I got thinking one day while we were contacting... Is it the people that need the church... or the church that needs the people more?? Sometimes as missionaries we get caught up in thinking why dont the people just listen to us? or just discouraging things like that but we all know that the church is always going to go on without the members, but as long as keep the mindset that we were called to teach, and if the poeple dont want to listen then there isnt anything more that we can do! Im not sure why this is so hard today to come up with things to say, and I hope this Email doesnt sound depressing because Im not at all, and we have plenty of ANIMO in our companionship but I dont have anything new to say really today other then my Testimony is becoming more and more solid every day! I know with ALL MY HEART that this church is true and as many Jehovas Witnesses or Church Pastors that try to shoot us down the Bible it just comes down to our testimony and at times thats all we can leave with people here because its the only thing that they cant find something contrary to it! The work here is really tough but I know that the Lord put me there for a reason, and every day is a strugle to keep my thoughts positive but I can find happiness in my testimony, its the secret, it really is! I know that!

But thats about it Family and Friends! I love you all so much and know that the Lord is blessing my through your prayers and I pray that the lord will bless you every single day!

Do your best, and leave the lord the rest!

 

Love Elder Gardner

New Companion

Hey Fam and Friends!

 

Well the news long awaited.... my new companion is Elder Broderick from Arizona. His house is actually like 15 minutes from Waweep and so he was able to understand what I was going through having family in Lake Powell without you! But ah this week has just been so loaded with things that happened and yeah. To start though, me and Contreras last day here in sabanna grande decided to go hike up to this big rock, which is pretty much the highest point in the valley of SabanaGrande and Im sending some amazing fotos from that. Its really just was so nice to get away for a minute and just sit up there and think, as you can see the wind was blowing really hard but ah it was so beautiful!

So wednesday we had Cambios and I picked up Elder Broderick and introduced him to our area here in good old SabanaGrande, hes got 4 months more then me but he clicked real fast and its been a fun past week or so together. We have been learning so much and just contacting like crazy, which is something that me and Elder Contreras hardly ever did so that has been something new for the both of us because he has been in the south for the past 4 months where its hotter then hot and his past couple companions have just been really planchero... like disobedient i guess is the best word in english. In other words we are both Craving just contacting and since we literally have no investigators now we are starting from scratch and man do I have some amazing contacting experiences to tell you... but not the time really. Basically saturday it was hotter then hot here and in the morning after our studies we werent feeling contacting but we knew what we needed to do so we left and just walked about 20 minutes up this cobble stone path and just started knockin doors, the very first door that we knocked was just this old little house with a big red door, and no doornob or a way to open it from the outside, yeah like the picture of christ knocking haha and this little old man opened the door after we stood there for every calling for someone and knocking. This mans name is Jose Benita... we didnt even ask.. he just invited us right in and sat us down after we basically just told him that we had a message for him about Jesus Christ and ended up teaching the entire first lesson with him and he just sat and listened with such intent. I dont know how amazing this is but just the way everything had been going that day and the circumstances we were in just dripping sweat in this little home with this little old man It was just such a tender mercy of the lord to me and I wish you all could have been there just kinda watching over because I know the spirit was there putting the words into my mouth as I taught my first really... lesson by myself with another Greengo. I dont know how better to describe this whole moment but I think back now and this was also the first time I had taught an actual man to be honest. WIth my little bit of contacting experience my first change and only teaching members or Laura and the two teenagers... this was the first time. So many more amazing things happened after that lesson that I couldnt have had a better saturday. He didnt end up showing up to church, but just from that hour and half of contacting that saturday morning we found 4 families and have appointments with all of them tomorrow. Just miracles are pouring out upon us. I know that to be true! I know its not impossible to find, baptize, and retain perople here in Sabanagrande, like so many other missionaries and even the mission pres himself thinks... something is about to change in this area... yes with two Greengos. The first time ever by the way... with just two Greengos!

Ok just real quick, but most importantly... I had a really stong feeling come over me to go visit with that Hermana Laura Avila that we hadnt visited with in over 3 weeks now... well we visitied with us our second day and she had so many questions about our church, we answered all of them, and just this weekend... she bore testimony to us that she knows everything is true and that she knows she needs to be baptized! She told us straight up that she wanted to baptized. There is so much more I wish I could say about the past couple lessons with her and how she got to this point. The problem that we are dealing with is getting them married but the good thing is that she knows!!!! We didint even have to accuse her, she came out and told us what she needs to do to be baptized in our church and be married too so that she is not living in sin! Her story to me is worth more then anything in my heart and I wish I could share it better but she is just our little miracle and Golden Investigator!

Anyways... I know this church is true and that miracles are performed throught the hand of the lord, even here in these poor little vilages of Sabanagrande Honduras.... Its so amazing to see!

Until Next week though... wish us luck in finding more people to teach and to be the miracle missionaires to change this area and the expectations. After all we had a total of 8 people in the church during the sacrament this sunday, and a total of 22 at most but its just ridiculous and I want so bad to just one day... fill every chair in our little chapel. There are 68 total chairs in our chapel... and one day my companion and I will fill everyone of them. DOnt know how, when, or where these people are but we can do it! I know that!

 

I love you all!

Love Elder Gardner

 

cleaning the font