Skype, the temple, and Aguacate

It was a great week. There were several highlights. 

First, we had a large zone conference with our mission president. He taught a lot of great motivational doctrine and talked about how we can improve and be more efficient with our time and our efforts. 

I got to go to a temple sealing on Saturday (for those of you who don't know what this is it is basically a marriage inside of a Mormon temple). A family that I had helped to be baptized a year ago was able to go to the temple and that was a happy moment for me. There was a sweet peaceful feeling there and all seemed to be calm, I am grateful that I was able to attend. What a special experience to see a family make special covenants with our Heavenly Father.

I Skyped my family last night, they are looking good (much better than me at least). It was great to see them and I have been blessed with a great family and incredible parents. Nobody was sad this time, but all were excited because in 7 weeks we will be conversing in person!

The time has flown. But I have no regrets about using this time to serve my Savior. I know that I am in a good cause and that this gospel will make people happy. I walk around everyday trying to help people to be happy, isn't that awesome? If people really understood what we are doing they wouldn't hide behind the doors or tell us to come back another day and not be there....

But I am doing awesome and I hope you are as well!

Have a great week!

Best regards, 

Elder Gardner

P.S. I only mentioned Aguacate (avocado in spanish) because I needed a third option and I have eaten aguacate on various occasions this week. 

Well this week was very busy and we had to make a ton of trips to different places in our zone. Early on in the week I got sick, but I was able to continue to work to whole time. However, Elder Rasmussen in our zone got extremely sick so I had to rest with him for a few hours one day while he suffered from what is probably Chickinguna (this is awful). I need no greater motivation to use mosquito repellent. 

We have an investigator who accepts many things we teach him, but not the Book of Mormon. He is very nitpicky and he tries to attack the wording of the Book of Mormon and his arguments are all quite illogical. He is coming along, but he gets distracted very easily. It is almost like he is in a candy shop but he finds the smudge on the wall and stares at it instead of viewing the wonders available!

They called me last Monday from the mission office, they asked me an interesting question. They asked me "Elder Gardner, a cual aeropuerto quiere llegar?" Or in other words "Elder Gardner, which airport would you like to arrive to when you go home?". I told them. I said "Boise, Idaho". The missionary on the phone is from Guatemala, so it took me a long time to explain where Idaho is at. 

The time is creeping up on me. 

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week. Everything is going very well here in El Salvador and I'm grateful for all of the blessings that the Lord gives me. I hope that all of you have an awesome week. 

Elder Gardner

Leadership Meeting, Family Tree, and 1 2 3

It was a great week this week everybody. We worked well in our area and although we didn't have the results we might have liked we feel good about the effort. 

On tuesday we had a leadership meeting and it went well, they made some changes to the weekly schedule and meetings and that was good. They also announced that we will now be allowed to go to the temple with recent converts to help them do temple work. I am excited because we will be going to the temple next saturday, woo hoo! That has been a highly anticipated event for me. 

I was helping a recent convert do family history work, when we finished with him I showed him my family tree. When the family history consultant for the stake saw how long my tree went she was in awe. My family tree is pretty awesome, it is enjoyable to do genealogical work.

When we sing hymns with people I always tell them, "ok, count to three to start us off". That is a confusing instruction to people, it is always entertaining when people say things like: "Ok, here we go.....3!" or they'll say" one" and look around like someone else is going to say two. One man just stared at me blankly and I repeated the instruction to him several times, he finally understood, turned to his side and yelled to his daughter "Did you hear that? Count to three!". You can't help but laugh sometimes, these people are great.

I enjoyed my study of scripture this week. I enjoy reading of the missionary work of Alma and the Sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. They really show a good example of how we should approach the work and fear the Lord and not men. I love to read the Book of Mormon and the New Testament and I learn continually. I know that the scriptures are true and that Jesus Christ is the Savior. 

I hope you all enjoy that nice spring weather. 

Elder Gardner

Boldness, Dogs in Sacred Places, and Sabbath Breakers

Elder Chiquival

It was a wonderful week here in Sonzacate, El Salvador. We worked diligently and had a lot of success in teaching people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

It was very hot this week but the heat has been going away a little bit, march and april are the hottest months so I'm almost out of the woods with that sweltering heat! My sunscreen has been a dear friend these last few weeks. 

We went to a baptism on Saturday in one of the town in our zone called Izalco. Two adult men were baptized and it was a great service. The only thing that bothered me was when I saw a dog come into the room, I was going to kick the dog out but everyone assured me it was fine. It was the dog of a relative of someone was getting baptized, but I don't think dirty dogs should be present for events like that. But, the people didn't care and nobody thought twice about it, the service went as planned. I guess that some of the cultural differences I will just never quite understand.

We found a man named Adalito a couple of weeks ago but we hadn't had a good opportunity to talk with him in a teaching setting. This week we did and something surprising occurred in the lesson with him. We were very very direct and bold with him in explaining gospel principles and to our surprise he readily accepted a baptismal invitation. You can never go wrong with boldness, a good direct explanation or invitation to do something is always the best. 

El Clasico, the name bestowed upon the matchup between Barcelona and Real Madrid, is a highly anticipated and viewed event in Latin America. Yesterday was El Clasico, everyone watched it and it reminded me of the Super Bowl. Everyone spent the Sabbath day watching soccer instead of thinking about God, it is interesting to see where our priorities lie. 

Everything is going great here in El Salvador, I'm enjoying each day and I love the people here. There are many wonderful people who genuinely want to follow Jesus Christ, and a general belief in Him among almost everyone, it is a pleasure to serve among these people. 

Have a wonderful week, 

Elder Gardner

Mystery Soups, Dirty Shoes, and a Trip to Belize

I don't have a lot to say this week. We were busy. We had to travel to San Salvador twice, once for a meeting and another time for immigration purposes. 

I had soup a few times this week. I like soup, but when it is always hot and humid I don't really want to eat a big bowl of piping hot soup! But I had some good soups this week although it is sometimes difficult to tell what dark colored soups are made of. 

We had some great visits with people this week. There is one experience that particularly touched me this week. We visit a family that hasn't come to church for many years. The dad smokes and has a negative attitutude, he says that when he went to church and lived the gospel before he was happy, healthy, and he loved life. Now he says that life feels like a drag and he has to suffer through every day. Whenever we go to this house they are all just sitting there silently watching tv, last night we went there and such was the case. 

The wife was sick, laid out on the couch with a grimace on her face. The daughters were watching tv and the dad was sitting there smoking on his tailgate of his truck. They were all in the same house but isolated in their own worlds. They let us come in, we taught a simple message, and then they began to talk. The whole atmosphere changed, they felt the Holy Ghost, they began to feel happy. They started to smile, they started to laugh, and it touched my heart to see that. After we ended our message with a hymn and a prayer, they gave us some food and by the time we left they were talking one with another and they looked happy! 

This was a simple experience. But I know that the Spirit changes people's hearts, it isn't anything special that we do as the missionaries. I know that God wants us all to be happy and to love each other. It is amazing how life changes when we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives and the negative influences of Satan go away. 

My companion will go to Belize this week. We were suprised by that as he already went to Belize. So I will have a new companion from Guatemala. I also got hit by a dirty shoe this week, long story short. 

 Enjoy the Spring weather back in Idaho. 

I've written too much.

Have a great week everybody!

Elder Gardner

The Rat in Hat and a Former Companion visits

Elder Mejia was my companion in Belize

Elder Lopez

This is the last week of this transfer, it has gone by seemingly fast. I feel as if it just begun, we had a large multizone conference this week and my former companion came. He is visiting from Mexico, but it was very odd for me to see him again. He is just a normal person now, no longer a missionary. I didn't talk to him too much, he just told me that he has been unable to find a girlfriend for the last 3 and a half months. This is coming from the same man who told me he'd be married 6 months after his mission...his chances of meeting the goal are looking rather bleak. 

We had a rat get into our house, it left excrements over all of my things. I was very unpleased with this, those poor choices the rat made led to its painful death. My companion was terrified when he knew there was a rat in the house. He hid in another room and shut the door while I killed it. After I killed the rat I had it on a stick and I approached him with it, that got a girly squeal out of him, haha. The isn't the first animal I've killed in my houses during my mission. I've killed rats, bats, cockroaches, and monkeys.(That part about the monkeys is a joke) 

The missionary work is going well here in El Salvador, we are always looking for more people to teach. We run into a lot of people who know the Bible and are obsessed with it, many people even believe if something isn't in the bible it isn't true and that God is unable to reveal anything else to us. It is difficult to help such close minded people who lack faith in God and His power, if God revealed truth before why can't He now? 

General Conference was great this weekend for all of you who saw it, I enjoyed the talks and the messages from the living prophets. I was glad to watch it in English and hear it in the original language, it just isn't the same in the spanish translation. 

I hope all of you have a great week! Be happy and don't forget to smile! Enjoy that nice spring weather, don't forget to put on sunscreen!

Elder Gardner

People Like Money, I see Dirty Houses, and I eat Mangoes

Mangoe season is in full bloom, I've been eating mangoes almost daily. They are at about 10 for a dollar right now so it is a good deal to eat some. We had a great week here in our area, we worked hard and we found a lot of new investigators this week so we were rewarded for our hard work. We also had some investigators come to church this week. The members brought all of them to church, I've found that is more effective. One member brought her boyfriend to church who is not a member, that is especially efficient fellowshipping. 

I went on interchanges this week and I was displeased to find the house I went to in the condition that it was. I left my house in order with my bed made, but when I arrived to the other missionaries' house the bed I had to sleep on had no sheets on it, however it did have, trash, dirty clothes, and stains on it. I told them to clean that house, it sure needs it. 

We had a lot of people ask us for money this week. It always makes me feel sad to see the devastating poverty, I want to give to everyone oftentimes. But, I also don't want to fund addictions and other wastes of money. So, I tend to prefer to just give food directly. We aren't really supposed to be giving handouts to people but sometimes I just feel bad. It humbles you to see this and makes you grateful for all that God has given us. 

I learn something new every day, but some things never change or get old. I know that Christ lives and that the gospel has been restored to the earth. I feel it a pleasure to try and share this message with people, I like to see the joy it brings to people when they decide to change their lives. I hope that all of us will focus on the positive this week and allow the good to overrule the bad so that we can be more happy. Everyone have a great week!

Elder Gardner