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.