Interesting Things Went Down this week‏

All is good here, I am always learning patience and tolerance with my Honduranian companion. I spoke in church two weeks ago, everyone could understand my talk so that was good. At least I feel like they understood, they were nodding their heads like they did.

So we went to Papa Johns for the last P Day, they had the All you can eat deal, so that was good. The other latino missionaries only ate like 6 slices, well, I ate 2 pizzas. It was fantastic and the employess at Papa Johns looked at me like I was some kind of freak, that was fun. I really could have eaten more but I stopped just because I was satisfied, perhaps if I return I will try to top 2 whole pizzas. I can say confidently that meal was the best I've had on my mission, I don't know if Papa Johns is better here or if it just tastes better in comparison to everything else I eat... I was fed cow tongue and turtle eggs this week. Those were gross, I just swallowed and prayed I didn't throw up.

Happy birthday to my sister Katelyn, I'm not there to properly embarrass her so if any of you see her please sing for me.

I went to an area called Vista Hermosa with Elder Herrera on an interchange, a boyfriend and girlfriend got in a huge fight in front of us and I learned several disturbing things about their relationship, I want to forget that moment, I guess he has thrown his girlfriend out in the rain with the gangsters in the streets multiple times. Just horrible.

So we went to teach some little kids and we brought a middle aged women from our ward to the lessons so she could invite them to activities and relate to the kids in a way that really only women can do. But she brought her baby too, I was more than a little disturbed when I realized that she was breast feeding during the lesson with no covering. So we went around to all of these people's houses with this lady  ( she's a really nice lady, great person) and she kept breast feeding. So those were some interesting lessons.

So I had lunch at a lady's house with some cops. one of them has his own church and he started doing this sermon to us during lunch. That was funny, we just shared a little bit of our beliefs with him and he agreed to read a pamphlet we left him. He was crazy, some of the people that carry around machine guns here really aren't qualified. It used to bother me to see ppl with huge guns, but it is very normal to me now, I probably see 100 daily, at least.

The attitude of gratitude has changed my perspecitve on a lot of things, I feel happier about myself and my situation although there are a lot of things I could be negative about. If you learn to be grateful for what you have in any moment your life will improve. I promise that Jesus lives and has provided us a way to live a happier and fuller life.

With best regards to all, 

Love, Elder Gardner

10-19-15 New Pictures

  lunch with cocinera, lots of missionaries eat with her

picture with familia romero

Companion took selfie and me in house. Elder Zelaya from Honduras

 recent convert rene, trying to motivate him to serve a mission and go to temple, also would like to teach his family. 

Last Week of First Exchange

Was an interesting week, my companion almost got emergency changed, and then he returned, and then he left again today. So I will have a new comp next wednesday, here is some scattered thoughts of what happened this week.

So, my laundry took 6 days to come back so I had to wear dirty clothes this week. It was a little irritating, the person who did my laundry kept making excuses but they were blatantly lies. But, I didn´t get mad, and it wasn´t too terrible to wear dirty clothes.

We went to eat at the Familia Cerros house on wednesday and we got Nachos! I got a big old plate of gloriously cheesy, beautiful, nachos. I ate that whole plate, it was so good, I don´t know why those Nachos tasted so great but those nachos were just beautiful.

We met this guy who got deported from the U.S., he expressed his displeasure with his situation here in El Salvador and used some english words that I haven´t heard in a while. He spoke fluent english, but not the type I like to hear, my memory of all the english swear words was vividly refreshed.

I got a package and some letters this week. They were great! I got some caramels in the package and I have been savoring them, the simple things that come in packages have never seemed so good.

This one guy we visited told us we needed to leave because there was gang activity in his neighborhood, he was like ¨I have 4 pitbulls here, I have them for a reason¨. So that was interesting, it wasn´t even that late at night so it was ok but the people here are aware of how dangerous it can be. I think El Salvador is now number 1 in the world in murders, there seems to be a couple places taped off by the military in our area every day. I read a newspaper the other day and it said ¨4 Cuadruple homicides¨. That was kinda bad, usually it is only like one event where like 3 ppl are killed but four times with four ppl dying, that was a bad day.

So I went to the temple this week, that was pretty fun but I got crushed on the bus. There were no seats available and I got situated between these two fat ladies, they smashed me all the way into San Salvador. I hate it when that happens, my gut hurt, I just got smashed. To make matters worse the bus had a short ceiling so my neck was stiff like all day after that. So that was one of my worse bus experiencesI  have had having two big ladies (like we are talking about big ladies) getting rubbed all over me. The buses are nuts, I can´t even describe how crazy they are. At least that bus wasn´t one of the ones with the bass so loud you have a headache.

So, I will have a new companion on wednesday. I have been trying to work hard and offer service to all the people. I have found that life is much more gratifying when we try to focus on helping others. I invite everyone to try to give someone a helping hand this week, and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the best thing you can give anyone. I know that by the power of his sacrifice we can feel good and be happy. 

I wish you all the best, peace out, 

Elder Gardner

here i am ith lopez rosa again, i saw him at the multizona conference. 

and this is my whole zone at the multizona in front of the temple

the packages and the letters come!!!!!!! That was so awesome, thanks for the caramels and the ties, all the letter I got were old but I still really enjoyed them all. Be sure to thanks Grandma and Grandpa Gardner, they are my most dedicated writers, also Lon and Gaylynn, I love their letters they´re great. And thank you for all of the letters from the kids as well, I loved reading them. And I loved Makayla´s beautiful flowers.

Here is the package again and I´ve been making myself pancakes every morning, It took a while to figure out how to do it right but I´ve got it down. I use add water only mix, and I put margarine in the fridge and use it to grease the pan before each pancake or it is impossible to make them right. I´m pretty sure I´m the only one who cooks in our zone, but it is rewarding to have hot pancakes every morning. But since I don´t want to get bored with pancakes I´ll probably go to yogurt with granola, and cereal next week just to keep a little variety. but I am pleased with my pancake proficiency.

Fam Romero, they are members except for the man, he is progressing kinda slowly but we´ll keep working with him.

Fam Chavarin, they were our old cocinera but we switched because she is costly and didn´t feed us that much but she really is a great lady, they´re family is good.

10-5-15 pictures from Elder Gardner