Monday's Letter 31 May 2011

Hola,  So this literally was the fastest week of my life.  I feel it should be Wednesday or Thursday not Monday again. I think it just keeps going faster. 

An Elder told me something that really made me think today. He said, “he has realized that in the mission their is a time and a place for everything. Most of the time it is to preach the gospel and contact like crazy and work your bum off and convert everybody.  But he said, sometimes he has to put up with a comp that he is supposed to help.”  I had been thinking about this subject for a while.  Because I try to work really hard and contact everybody but sometimes it’s not good, because my comp is 10 feet in front of me and doesn’t stop when I contact someone, then i lose him  and he has to stop and find me and he gets mad.   But I need to find the happy medium of working as hard as I can but still get along with my comp.   And so the past couple of weeks I decided that is the most important thing I need to do right now.  And so I have been doing my best to serve him.  Ben told me when I talked to him on the phone that if i would serve him that he would change.  Honestly I didn’t believe that for a second, not at all.  But I have been doing it and it works Ben, your a genius.  He has slowly but surely been more obedient and we are getting along, we have comp study now in the morning now too.  Things are getting a lot better every day, there are still some days that are really bad and hard, but mostly there is a dark to light difference.

Dad, I was thinking about those  little signs we had up on all the furniture too, and how I tried learning online.   And you’re right, I don’t think I remembered any of them when I entered the MTC:  Maybe refrigerator because it’s basically the same. But I have been blessed so much.  I realized yesterday how much I have been blessed when I contacted this 16 year old kid. We couldn’t find this house, we never found it actually. Houses are really messed up here and the numbering systems are awful, and some houses don’t have numbers because they build  houses on top of one another or in some random shape and form and its confusing.  But anyway I asked him where this house was and he didn’t know.  So I was like okay that’s okay but we are missionaries, and the whole spiel.  And I bore a short testimony about Jesus Christ and then gave him a proclamation to the world pamphlet and explained what it was and that a prophet and apostles of God wrote it with the direction of God. I don’t know how interested this kid really was but he listened and it was good practice.  Then I asked him if we would read it with his family and if his family wanted to listen to our message another time.  He did not understand my Spanish, I said do you desire to listen to us another time like 6 times, he didn’t get it.  I was like flip comp will you talk please, he turned around and gave me the cold shoulder, so I was like okay so you don’t understand and he said  yes, just a little bit.  I told him it was my 4th month on my mission here and that I’m learning Spanish. Then I said it in a different way and asked if he wanted to listen and he understood. That made me happy, then he said no.  After that for like an hour I was kind of depressed cause my accent is terrible and he couldn’t really understand me.  That is when I remembered those signs that were on the furniture back home.  I realized that I just had a 5 min conversation with a 16 year old in Guatemala in Spanish. And how I could not remember that silla means chair just 4 months ago.  I have definitely been blessed with speaking Spanish.  Also the fact that I understand Spanish basically now is amazing.  4 months ago on the phone before I left I had a conversation one day with Jason in Spanish. I don’t remember what he said exactly something like loha heremano como le va, (hello brother how’s it going), and I didn’t understand what he said.  I don’t understand everything but I mostly understand everything that is normal. If it’s about the gospel I understand and that’s what is important.  Just little things I don’t know yet.  Like my comp had a conversation with this lady about how she broke her ankle, I was lost.  But really, I might only have a conversation with someone about how they broke their leg like 3 times in my mission.  But understanding Spanish is going great.  Sometimes it might take them repeating one or two times still but oh well.  I just need to work on speaking tons now.

I had stuff I wanted to tell everybody but don’t really remember what. The president has like 3 weeks left, and he is really baggy, its kinds funny.  I thought presidents don’t get baggy.  Our district leader said there are some problems he talked to him about and he said he would work on it but basically he is just kind of putting them off till the new president shows up.  My district and zone leaders our pretty baggy too.  They don’t care as much anymore.   They are more laid back and don’t care what anyone in their zone does. It’s kind of annoying that they don’t care since right now I am one who talks to them about certain things and they don’t care at all and just tell me to do nothing about it.  But oh well, there is nothing I can do about it.  I promised myself though that I am never getting baggy.  I think that when you have little time left in the mission that that should be the most successful time because you know the language, how to teach, talk to people, what to do and everything.

Oh yeah, Adrienne is getting married that is crazy, crazy, crazy, congrats.  It seems like three months ago I was in high school and seminary  with all these people and now, Jon is in the Philippines, I’m here, Adrienne is getting married, and people are off at college and others leaving on missions soon. Crazy! What happened?

Mom, you would be very proud of me, I have been really cleaning our apartment whenever I get a chance.  You taught me well, I hate messes and dirty dishes.  We have tons of bugs just because my comp leaves out plates and food and dishes out and doesn’t wash them and trash piles up.  I didn’t want to clean any of it up because it was his stuff and not mine.  But I remembered something else you taught me too, that it doesn’t matter whose it is you just pick it up.  So I have been doing the dishes, and cleaning the table and wiping it down and cleaning the sink, and trying to kill all the bugs with bug spray. Missionaries are dirty people, our apartment has lots of problems.  Little by little it’s getting a lot better, our kitchen and bathroom are millions of times better now.

Oh yeah, something I think you would find funny that happened today mom.  I got a haircut, and the lady started and was super confused and didn’t know what to do because I had tons and tons of hair and it was pretty long and thick.   Latinos have thin hair so this was the first time she has probably cut a gringos hair.  She said is this good and I said yes then she realized there was tons more to cut and she didn’t get it right, my hair was just always sticking out and there was always more to cut.  It was funny.

So funny random things!

I had this tamale it’s like mush with some spaghetti sauce inside.  It is gross.  But our investigator like 2 weeks ago fed us them and asked if we like it, I obviously had to say yes.  Now she thinks we like them so every time after the lessons we have them, well like 70 percent of the time.  And I hate them. It’s the one food I have found that is just straight up not good at all.

I thought our windshield getting hit with a homerun ball was pretty funny.  I probably know who it was.  I worked out with all the baseball players during 2 summers ago and in sports P.E. last year. Wow it was more than last year it was 1st semester of senior year in 2009.

But I got to go, c/ya, hope all is well with everybody.

PS, Tell my friends from back home to write, I want to know how things are going with them and when they go on missions.  I can use the pouch for 1 stamp anywhere around the world. In a dear elder can you give me the address of Jon and Spencer, and everybody that I’m forgetting. and whoever else.

love you, bye

elder gardner, ps Jason people here can say my name idk why. They say gardner not jardiner.

May 23, 2022

hola, time is flying by way too quickly. Not just my mission but life in general. I was thinking the other day about something me, jason, primo, jon, and joseph did. Then I realized that jon has almost been on his mission a whole year. That blew my mind. I was just hanging out with him like 4 months ago, but then i realized i was at college 4 months ago. About after jr year till now is just one big blur. crazy. And it seems like i have been gone for years for all the things that happen at home. I have had like 5 cousins get married, an uncle too. A nephew born, and like 3 people i know get mission calls. Ben graduated. And it has only been 3 months. A lot is going to happen in two years. 

 

I made a list of things to talk about again. so here we go. 

 

I am dumb, i didnt know how packages work. You sent it to the mission home, so that means i get it when their are trasfer meetings. There is another address you can send it too but this is fine. The other way still takes just as long. And then it has to go through the aps, zls, my distict leader. And that takes a long time too, because all of them forget at least one week to bring the packages somewhere, so it takes a while. And trasfer meeting is every month and a half. It takes things a month to get here. So thats perfect. But ya I got the packages at transfer meeting (And dont ask me why we were a trasfer meeting because we didnt have trasfers). But those packages were the best. Everything i literally have been wanting and looking for, I will explain more

 

Tie, Okay thanks mom, I love you, that tie is the best, I am wearing it right now. But elder hymas my old comp has tons of ties that look like this and are that style. And so the last pday we were with elder hymas and lewis at this store with random old stuff people donate. I was looking for a tie like that and didnt find one. But then you send me it. It was exacly what i was looking for. Oh and this is something else, but ryan i found this wembly tie in our apartment, and i didnt really like it but deicided to wear it just because you love wemblys. And now i have changed my mind and love it after wearing it. Thanks

 

Peunut butter, I have been craving a pb and j sandwhich. So i went to buy peunut butter a couple weeks ago. It is like 100 quetz here, which is like 15 dollars. but i only get 130 dollars a month so 15 is a lot for pb. So ya it was awesome. 

 

Oreos, my old comp elder graham bought some oreos that he has at his apartment. On like 2 occasions he has given me some oreos, as a gift, just like on divisions and stuff when i dont have my own food there. And it just brought back the memory or the thought idk. But you know how much i love oreos, and eating a couple made me want more. So I tried to buy some last pday, but we didnt have time to go to the store. So I was disappointed because I wanted oreos. Then I got some 2 days later, it was awesome. 

 

Carmel mints. Elder grahams comp elder roske has carmel mints at their house. I ate one last week and i have been having a sour throat and it felt great. So i have been looking for them to buy for my soar throat, and the most sick i have been was the day of transfers when i got them. 

 

Redsox, Dad you sent this a while ago, but i read that the redsox won 1 game only so far, that made my day. my comp has these redsox pajamas. he doesnt know who they are, just got them from an old comp, but every night it makes me angry and thing back to 2004 world series and then of other random times. 

 

Dad I do not get the ensign. We get the liahona every month. And i finally found out what the liahona is. I dont think many people know this. THe liahona. is a combination of the friend new era and ensign from that month and a few other things. They just pick different good stories. So it is possibble for the story you told me about to be their but i looked and its not. 

 

Oh so we dont have a fridge, so i cant keep regualar milk, so i bought this podwer stuff, that you just mix with water. I was scared it was going to be sick. It is awesome i love it. It might just be because i am here in guatemala that its great. Like how on campouts everything is better. It does give me a little stomach ache but everyything i eat gives me a little stomack ache, so i dont care. I eat ceral now every morning. 

 

Oh so you talked about before how you wanted to come pick me up after my mission. At trasfer meeting i talked to this elder that was leaving and his parents from utah were their. I talked to them and they said it has been one of the coolest experiances every both for him the missionary and his parents. So I think that would be sweet for you guys to do. That is in a long long time though. I talked to his parents for like 10 min. That was nice. Just to have a normal conversation with adults that speak english. I realized i havent had that for a while. I have been with all spanish speakers and other 19 year old americans. So that was cool. It will be the cheapest trip you ever take too. I get 130 dollars for the whole month so will be fine with lots less. I think i have decided i want to buy lots before i come home. movies here are like 30 cents. At trasfers i got a custom made hymn book cover that they are making. it cost 10 dollars. it is leather with a picture of jesus in gethsemane in the front with mission sur. and on the back just a normal pic of jesus and the side elder gardner. I just got the hymn book and not for my bible and bom yet just to see how it looks. he has a book of like 200 pictures though of the church and you pick what picture and then can put any words or anything on the side. Before I come home i will have to make one for my brothers and whoever. They are pure leather brown, with a picture that like pops out. I have seen them their too legit to quit. 

 

Oh so at transfers our zone leader left and elder warren, my buddy from the ccm. his comp left. So he doesnt have a trainer techniacally anymore he is just with another elder. It is weird how evverybuddy just changes around a lot. It is going to be hard to get used to. So far i have been with the same people for a while. Everyone from the ccm is in my zone. All of my disrict is new people. SO it will be wierd next trasfer to see what happens. Im excited to move around and see different parts of the city. And more excited to leave the city and go to some city here by the beach or up in the mountains or something sweet. 

 

So there is the sweet shop in elder lewis area. It is like a good will or something. There is just some random stuff. The coolest is that there is some sweet legit real jerzeys. Elder lewis got a chigaco hawks, i think jerzey the hocky team. for like 2 dollars. Elder hymas and his comp got a boston celtics and a indiana pacers jerzey. I saw some sweet ones but think i will wait for a caridnals or bulls one or something or blues. or rams. 

 

So this kid yesterday ran up to me after church and was just goign crazy. He was like hey so i have a grandma who lives in your area and she is interested in the lessons and when can you come by how bout right now. she is really ready i am way excited. So we eat lunch then went over their. It was funny the kid was way excited for his grandma. We talked for about 30 sec and he interupted us and said hey before we do anything else can we have a prayer to invite the spirit to the lesson. We ovboisously said yes. It was just awesome how excited he was. She really was way ready, she blew my mind with what she knew. I showed her a scripture in galtions about prophets and apostles and talked about the apostasy and how their were not propets and apostles or the authority after christ. She was like ya, I have always wondered about that and have been waiting for the day when we will come out of this apostasy and recieve a prophet again. Wait? What did you say? I was amazed. She is cathlic but realizes they dont have the authority or a prohet and apsotles and it says that the church of christ must have prohets and apostles. We talked about jose smith and the book of mormon and she loved it. When we asked her if she would read, she kinda got offended and was like why not. Like why would i not read? That made me laugh, i was just like okay then. great. It went really well. Her granddaughter that was there was interested too and took a bom to read.

But I am out of time, and need to go, oh thanks for all the advice you gave me on the phone, me and my comp are getting along a lot better, that hasnt changed anything else yet but we are getting along, so thats a start.

 

Love, Elder Gardner

 

PS¨, Can you give me the address of jon anderson, spencer hair, and blake so i can write them. And others when they get their calls. I never got that letter full of addreses. You could mail another if you like. Oh and dear elder i get every week on tuesday. If non family wants to write since i know mom doesnt want them emailing me to take up my time to write home, haha. Thanks sis j for all thee dear elders. I always get one every tuesday at district meeting.  

This Week (15 May 2011) from Brandon

Hola family,
     I dont know why but this computer would not work for like 20 minuets, so I only have a little time left. We are not in my area, we went to some ruins this morning and then to Mcdonalds and now we're in like the main mall of all of gueatemala.  This computer is really nice and fast.  Although at first it was not. I am with Elder Hymas, Elder Lewis, and thier comps.  I am not going to lie this was the longest week I have ever had in my life.  It is over now and i am moving on.  Me and my comp are getting along better, but things are still bad.  Like we get along but he hasn't changed.  So I am just learning to be more patient and not say anything. I feel bad, but this week we went to this one house to eat like 5 times.  My comp knows they feed us everytime we go over there, so he finds some excuse to go.  I would rather not but they are nice and do feed us some really good food.  Beans with bread, and cheese and tortillas.  We had a baptism of Manual Saturday it was sweet.  He bore his testimony after his baptism too, it was sweet.  He said the reason he was interested in our message is because we were friends with him first and then shared our message.  That was a nice pat on the back, he said exactly what we would want him to say and feel.  Also we had two investigators at the baptism.  One is way interested and we have taught the first three lessons and she is loving it.  And she loves the Book of Mormon and reads every day.  The the other investigator that was there is her friend she invited her to come with her.  She wasn't as interested.  We explained it really well i thought, but she doesn't think that she needs to be baptized because she already has been.  It was good she came though because after the baptism, the bishop talked to her for like an hour, and he, I found out is a convert and just joined 15 years ago.  His wife joined and he didn't for a couple of years.  When his wife joined, he hated the church and was way against it and thought he was happy without it. But his wife just gradually worked with him and eventually he came to church and eventually joined and has just grown ever since and now is the bishop.  He can explain things very well though and talked a lot about lots of stuff.  Then he just told her to pray about it.  He said do what your heart tells you, "i used to hate the church and so i didnt go, but one day my heart changed and i went". Basically he said, its up to you, the church may not be true to you so don't come, but just ask and read the Book of Mormon to find out.  It was good.
   The ruins we went to today were sweet.  There was like carvings in the rocks and there was tunnels and rooms and stairs going down and all sorts of stuff.  I can show you pictures in 2 years.
    Transfers are tommorow but we have been told that we are not getting transfered.  But we might actually so that i get a new trainer because the president wants to try out this new program.  My spanish is getting better.  But my comp talks a lot and doesnt let me talk so not too much.  I think when i leave this area and go some where else it will just jump and get a lot better.  Part of the problem is that i met everyone the first week I was here, and I couldnt say much and was too scared to try.  But now I have gotten over it and have gotten better but people dont think I can say much so they just don't try to talk to me.  They just ask my comp things for me.  I try to speak and butt in and answer and let them know I can talk and I want to practice, but usually my comp answers before I can say anything. 
    It is starting to get hot here now. But I am mostly used to it by now.  But the worst is coming.  The rainy season is durning the hottest season too, so thats nice.  I am learning a ton in the scriptures, I love it. I have been reading the new testement lately.  Its awesome.  I have studied it in seminary and things and know lots but have never actually read through it.  It is really good.  Tons of people here are catholic but i am finding out that they don't go to church or read the bible or anything.  The other day I said something about how i am so gratefull for the atonment of Jesus Christ and the oppurtunity we have to repent then i dont remember exactly what i said but some question came up like what do you think repentence is.  And they were like wait what is the attonement.  I said, oh you know when Christ died for our sins.  Then had never heard of it, so we explained it.  It was my fault i just assumed they knew what it was.  I never thought that someone had never heard of the atoment.
    But all is well, hope the Reds lose and the Cards start winning. Oh and tell Cael hi. love

elder gardner

May 9, 2011

Hola family, whats up. So I just talked to you yesterday but after I wrote down things that I forgot that I wanted to say. We met a random canadian the other day, that was funny. His mom had a friend that worked with her from guatemala and was going back, and invited him to go back just for fun for the summer. That doesn´t happen everyday. So he is here just for the summer and is learning to speak spanish. I was suprised my comp talked to him and I could translate for him. He met the missionarys the day before he left canada. They gave him a book of mormon and he is reading it. Thats awesome that he reads it but he really is not interested. He told us he was a member of the church and we were like wait what. He said he likes every religion and is a member of all of them. Which is great but he just wants to learn more about are church and not anything else, then move on to another church. Reading the BOM might change his mind though. He learns spanish that way too, he has an english and spanish BOM.

 

Ok so their are these drinks here that I love. They are called squizes. There amazing its like orange juice. It tastes freshely squized. And They add tons of sugar. And they are only 3 quetzales. Which is like 42 cents.

 

 Oh so no house in the whole country has carpet. And it is not totally because they cant afford it like i thought. They can but they hate it because they just like to do whatever they want on the ground and then sweep the ground. This was a big problem in the mtc here actually beause they had carpet and the latinos had never had it and would like shine their shoes on it and stuff and just get stains all over everywhere. So they removed it when we were their. It was really funny sunday though. Our district and one other went to like 4 churches and sang a himno. One church had carpet in the chapel. The elders that have been here for like 21 months walked in and were like Oh my what is this. They  bent over and felt it and were amazed. It was funny. They said after so long of not having it you really begin to miss it. For most it was the first time they had seen carpet there whole mission.

 

Oh so I was just thinking the other day, I realized something that is awesome and blows my mind still. So I want to share it with you. So in heaven 1 day is 1000 years on earth. And so it has been like 2000 years basically since christ died. So for christ it has been 2 days. And so their are lots of scriptures that say I come quickly and stuff like that. And we are thinking man quickly it has been 2000 years since you died. And people in heaven are like wow have patience it has been two days. haha. Thats crazy though, two days is not a lot. That flys by very quickly.

 

Oh so every day its wierd something random always remindes me of people everday. Its funny. Like for instance everytime I see somebody with a cowboy hat on I cant thing of Matt and John The Air bandits. haha. That was at philmont. Ask Joseph. Or other random things.

 

Okay joseph, so you should make sure to bring lots of good music on your mission. Listening to mucic is one of the best things ever now. It uumps you up. And idk if you mission will but president lets people have ipods and things. Which I think is kinda wierd but whatever. It might change in a month with the new president. Oh and so my first comp elder hymas had something cool happen a couple months ago. His best friend got his call to the guatemala central mission, which is the city too. I though that was just funny they went right next to each other. What if you went to here, or with jon in the phillipines, or with spencer in ghana, or blake in russia. That would be sweet. I am betting you go somewhere in europe there, that just seems like where your going to go. But you never know, maybe you will to the NY mandrin speaking mission.

 

Oh jason thanks for the advice, I have been trying when i contact people just to say different things and not to memorize a saying. I talk about different things everytime. And lessons I definetly talk about different things every time, just because like you said different people need different things. Here because of the amount of cathlics teaching the apostasy is hard, cause bascally your just telling them that they are wrong and they dont have any authority. One thing I like that my disrict leader did when we were on splits was that he had some scrips how jesus established his church with propehts and apostles, and with him christ. And without that it wasnt his church. So he talked about that and then said how we have apostles, and a prophet. He skipped the fact the the people with authority died and all of that, which basically is the same think and this but in a nicer way. It worked really well.

 

Oh so you wanted to know a little about my comp. He is from panama. He joined when he was 13 and then went inactive and into bad stuff. He moved out when he was like 16 and moved two hours away. And when he was 20 he went on a mission. He doesnt really talk about it so I dont really know why he deicided to come back to church and go on a mission and all. But gets annoyed with me and americans because are family writes us every week and our family is members and things. I dont talk about it and dont rub it in but ya. He knows and will tell you that he is disobiedient but doenst care and doesnt want to change. He because he lived alone for so long hates talking and commnicating, so I never know whats going on, I just follow him. If i ask him a question he doesnt answer. He just lets me figure it out. Which doesnt help because i have lots of questions about spanish but oh well, im learning from everyone else that is latino around. He is in a tought spot right now because his girlfriend who lives here gets home from her mission this month. And so she is going to want to call and meet up and things. So that is going to be hard.. But whatever.