If you look closely at this picture, through my eyes, you will see Elder Gardner saying goodby to his brothers but you will notice the Savior in the background, welcoming him to his service with open arms. I guess only a sentimental father would get that at first glance.
It seemed that the world was conspiring against us, but Brandon (Elder Gardner) made it to the MTC on time, sort of. Here is the story. Monday night as we were driving to President Holt's home to have Brandon set apart as a missionary, it started to rain and then ice pellets started falling. Brandon and his brother Ben were supposed to fly out Tuesday evening (Feb 2nd) and spend the night in Salt Lake City with Brandon's brothers and then report at 1 p.m. to the MTC in Provo. We watched the weather closely and realized there was no way he was getting out of St. Louis that evening. We moved his ticket to 10 a.m. hoping he would get out before the storm but no luck with that either. The St. Louis airport closed and cancelled all flights for the rest of the day. We talked, planned, prayed, and decided to jump in the car and drive to Louisville KY. Southwest was great and got us a flight for Tuesday night that was going to work out well. Ben, Brandon and I drove to Louisville. The highways were icing and nasty but we went. Finally it turned from ice to rain but then the fog set in. I was going 80 mph and hoping we didn't die. We arrived at the airport with exactly an hour to spare...when we arrived at the gate we realized that Louisville is on Eastern Time. The door was just closing for the flight and they had given our seats away to stand by passengers. I begged but couldn't muster the magic to convince them to let Brandon on the flight. Southwest did put us on a flight to Birmingham Alabama with a promise to get the boys to Salt Lake on Wednesday. I got us a hotel and we spent the night. At 6 a.m. I put the boys on a flight to Phoenix with a connection to Salt Lake. The arrived early enough to get stand by seats on an earlier flight to Salt Lake. They arrived at 12:25 and Nathan and Ryan met them along with Andrea, Brooke, and Gavin. They all drove down to the MTC together and arrived only an hour late.
The regular crowd had already checked in so the boys all got to take some pictures and help Brandon into the building with his bags. They took a few more pictures and said their goodbyes. Thank you all for your love and interest in Brandon and his success. We love you all. Scott
PS: Brandon thought this last picture was hilarious. They are redoing the soccor fields but the wording could lead you to think something else.
Here is Brandon's first letter to us. I think he is going to do great. _______________________________________________________________________________
Thanks dad for leaving me a note for when I got here but, my district leader didn't know what mailbox to check for 3 days so I didnt get it till friday. It has been an on going joke to bug him about getting our mail. The mtc is awesome!!!! I love it. My companion is Elder Hymas. He is from Sandy Utah or somewhere around there. He is awesome. My whole distict is really cool. The two other kids in my room are Elder Brandon (haha), and Elder Brinksy. Elder Brandon is hillarious, he is from spanish fork utah. He can see his house from the higher buildings and the temple, thats crazy. Elder Brinksy is from Dallas texas, He is super tall but he is quiet and shy. Elder Brinsky, me, and one other person in our district are the only ones that have not taken spanish in high school. So it is hard because everyone else can speak now and do lots of things that we can't. But i'm learning a lot and learning slowly but surely. I can say a short prayer and bear a short testimony in spanish. I can talk to someone and get to know them a little bit. Most people here are tight. Everbody is really nice, and friendly. There is the occasional goober that is a debbie downer and hates every minute of it. This kid on our floor always tells us how the showers are freezing and how the food is bad and how days take forever and how long everyrthing takes. But me and my roomates think that everthing is the opposite. Nice hot showers, amazing food, the days are flying by. Then again when I look back on it, it seems like I have been here for weeks. But the days themselves fly by. Jason thanks for writing me your testimony is spanish and making me feel how much that I don't know!! ha. I picked out a couple of words. Then I got debbie downer to translate it for me since he was in our room doing nothing, ha. Everything is going great though. Can you email this to everybody that wants it. I am trying to think of what else you would want to here, I only have 30 minuets to write, and now only 15.
My testimony in spanish, is
So que es el libro de mormon is verdadero, so que es jesucristo el salvador, estoy agradacido por familia, en el numbre de jesucristo amen.
I have gained 15 pounds since i have been here, haha not.
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