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.