February 2012

Hola family, wow. Lots has happened, I dont even know where to start.

So on wednesday we had changes. I am now 2 hours outside the capital, in the middle of nowhere. I love it. It reminds me of vernal. Its funny. There are lots of people that wear cowboy hats and they have lots of car shops. Its funny. Its a little hick town in guatemala. But still way different. Its been hard up to today because there is nothing in this town. There is nowhere to buy food. All there is, is little street shops. So the 4 days i have been living off tortillas, eggs, and a can of fruits. And some crakers. But today we are here where the stake center is and there is a grocery store, so we are going to go shopping after this.

Here it is a branch. And we dont have a stake, it is a district. I love it. There is a lot of work to do and a lot of people to help. The branch is really struggling right now. When my comp came a month ago there was 30 people going to church. Now there is like 60 people going. But thats not that much. I was told by a return missionary that it used to be 100 that came. But lots have gone inactive. So I am happy to be here. I wanted to come to a little branch and be able to help it grow.

So my companion is elder Borge, from nicaragua. I knew him before. He was in my last zone with me. I love him. He is a great missionary. He knows why he is here and works like a crazy man. He helps me a lot. He is from a little village in nicaragua and so knows how to work in a branch better than i do. It has been hard. We dont get too much help. There is not meetings or anything like that. There is a president and 1st counselor and there is not a 2 counselor. But none of that matters. My comp is a really funny guy. He is a nerdy guy. He reminds me of like kenny maness. He is super funny. We get along great.

I realized somthing cool the other day, that every single one of my comps has been from a different country, I am getting to know every culture. Here is the order of where my comps have been from, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, United States (texas), guatemala, and now nicuragua. Thats cool, im getting to know lots of different culture and things about everywhere.

Thanks for the advice dad. Yes I know it is true. God needs me here at this time for some purpose and I just need to find out what it is and do my best. I am very happy that those people that we taught in my other area are going to be baptized too. They got rid of the elders in my old area. Now the zone leaders have two areas, theirs and my old one. So they are working with these people.

Oh so guess what, I am the district leader here. Im excited. I love being able to help out the other missionarys. In my district we have two sister missionarys. And also there is two elders. elder rios. which is rivers. haha, Elder rivers. and his companion elder jackson from salt lake. I knew elder rios before, he was in my district in my first area. He is a great guy. Really funny. And he loves to work. Elder jackson is a great elder too. He is a little new and has been super shocked coming outside the capital. Things are way different. I was a little shocked but not as much. So it has been nice to help him out. It always helps when their is someone to talk to from the usa. I remember being with my first comp and i was dying. People were speaking to me in spanish all week long. When it came to pday i loved talking to someone in english and just relaxing and talking about the nfl or baseball or somthing.

I have to get adapted to teaching here. The people are different here and you cannot teach them the same way. Here they dont have much schooling and lots cant read or write. So we have to change everything we do. That has been a little hard for me. Something i always did before is explain everything with the scriptures. Now i cant exacltly do that if they cant read. And we cant leave them with a chapter to read or a phamplet. We just have to tell them everything. So I need to adapt my teaching a lot.

So we had a baptizm on saturday. It was the best one ever. The water in the church doesnt work. So we went and did it in a river. It was amazing. It was a very spiritual experience. The women that got baptized is the wife of a returned missionary that got back about 2 years ago. Now they are a active family in the branch. They have a little 2 month year old baby.

Here the work is amazing. We have about 10 people that are possible baptizms for the next month. And more if we work hard. My companion and I have made some goals for the next month to have 10 baptizms, so well see what happens, I know we can do it with gods help. I feel so happy right now and everything is going great.

Thanks for the wonderfull advice that you always write my in your emails and for your wonderfull examples. I am gratefull to have a big family and that every single one of them is sealed in the temple and active in the church and keeping their covenants. That is a great blessing to know that everything is good at home.

Love you all, thanks for everything.

Elder Gardner