Hey family, Sounds like life is good. Happy Birthday! Ben and Shalon. Sounds like it was fun.

So me and my companion were sick this week. It was fun times. We got over it though. First he was sick, then he got me sick. So we found a new family this week. They are neighbors of a recent convert here. The kid came to church yesterday but the dad couldn't come. He has problems with his knees. He can be sitting down for a long period of time. So that is why. He promised to come this next Sunday though. So that should be sweet. Im excited

I'm sorry if I can think of anything to write right now. I have a super duper headache. So I can not think at all.

I have not seen this cute baby yet. Nobody has sent any pictures. I have just heard all about her from everybody. So that would be sweet if you want to send pictures. Ryan is a dad now. Crazy. That is awesome. I cant wait to come home and meet all my nephews and nieces that I have not meet. And to see how big Gavin is now.

So is mitt Romney winning the elections. That is what i have heard. That would be sweet. Even people here are hearing about it. We were asked about it the other day. Somebody said oh you guys are missionaries from the church where the next president goes. I was like what. It was random. But that is awesome. The church will get lots of publicity. Then more people will be converted to the gospel. Sweet!!!!!

Today I have 17 months in the mission. Wow. Crazy. Can you believe it.

Question, What are you studying Jason? My companion just asked me this week and i wanted to tell him history, but i wasn't sure if that was right. So I decided to ask to make sure.

I am glad for how many blessing we have received from the lord. I was thinking about it yesterday. The people here have nothing. They don't have good jobs or houses or anything. I was talking to some investigators, and they wanted to know all about you guys and what you did and everything. I felt bad telling them. I don't know why it was just hard. I told them that dad is a airline pilot. And they were just like wow, oh my. He fly's planes. I just felt so bad but blessed of the lord.

Well I am going to go now. Everyone have a great week. i love all of you, peace

Elder Gardner

Hello Family, Thanks for the pictures. There sweet.

So this week was an okay week. Well the beginning was terrible. Me and my comp were not getting along and everything fell apart. I gave up. I just couldn't take it anymore. So we went to the house. But I felt bad, I couldn't do that either. I wanted to work. So we left and worked, it didn't work though because we were mad and didn't have the spirit. I have decided that anytime something happens I am going to say it was my fault and take the blame for it. Because if I change my outlook then everything around me changes. Well I have been trying to love him and serve him and make him happy. I just got frustrated because it wasn't working. I was loving him and serving him and doing everything i could do include him and help him but he would not change and didn't want to do anything. Ill just leave it like that because I don't want to tell you the whole thing and complain about my comp, because then I wouldn't be loving like i should. But this week I learned tons. I am very grateful for the trials that I went through. I learned to love no matter what happens. And i learned to have more patience and not give up. I grew tons this week. And i remembered that i have been praying for trails in my prayers. And i got the trails, now i have to be grateful for it because i got what i asked for. After elder Erying said that in the talk in conference I have tried to always ask for to have big trails so that i can learn certain principles. And well now I have seen that god answers prayers. But don't worry this story ends well. On like Friday finally we talked about everything that happened and we both got on the right page and made up for everything. And after that we have been best buds again, so everything is great right now.

So tonight they tell us if we have changes, my companion mighty leave and I might get a new comp. He has almost 5 months here. But I think and hope he will stay here. We just have 1 change together. But who knows. President does whatever the lord tells him to do. Sometimes crazy things happen. Like in my 2nd area, I was with each of my companions for just 1 change. 1 ended his mission, the other became secretary and my kid went to Peru to serve his mission. So anything can happen.

So we have this family that is super golden. They are awesome. I love them. They just are scared to go to church. I don't know why. But we taught them yesterday about eternal marriage and temples. It was great. I loved it and they loved it. But they do not want to go to the church. I don't know why. We are going to bring a couple this week to teach them. I think that will help them. Then they will have friends and will not feel alone and go to church. So that should be sweet. They are like in their 20`s and they remind me of my brother and sister in laws. And they have a 2 year old little crazy kid. I love them.

Well I have to go now. Thanks for everything you do for me. Thanks for the pictures. Emry is so cute. I love the pictures.

Elder Gardner

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

brandon

Nov 7, 2011

November 7, 2011

Hola, family. So yes i have a new companion. His name is Elder Ruis. He is from texas. But his parents are mexican. So when he was little he learned spanish as his first language and then in the street and school he learned english. So he is perfectly fluently in both languages. He has 10 months in his mission. One month more than me. He is a great elder. We both have about the same amount of time in our mission, So both of us arent really sure what to do exactly all the time and what is the best methods and things. So we both are learning a lot. I am having a lot of good oppurtunitys to be the one chosing what is best to do. My other companions just told me what we were doing and where we were going. But now he is new to the area and doesnt know anybody or what to do, so we both have to work together and figure it all out.

Our recent converts are doing good. Angel and Paola, the young couple, he just found a job and he works from monday to saturday and has sunday off. Which is really really hard to find here. Especially when it is just a normal job. The other woman, lidia, has not found a job but she is progressing more. She was at church on sunday and is active. She is not as strong in the gospel and needs more help than the couple. And the mom of paola is a member, so they have lots of help and support.

Other than that is has been a hard week. So we had lots of investigators that dropped us and dont want anything. So we need to find new investigators. We have been trying to have family home evenings with the members and the idea is that they invite a family they are friends with to the family home evening. But the members dont always do it, so we just have a family home evening with the members. Which is good to strengthen the members but we still dont have any investigators. But we are keeping that up and it is getting better. I try to contact a lot, but that just doesnt work that well. Yesterday we fasted to find a new family to get baptized this month. So we will find one. Some members invited their friends to church yesterday and they came. We have a family home evening with them tonight so we will see what happens with that.

Ben thats awesome you invited friends to go to the activity. Keep doing it, eventually they will come. That happens here a lot. Family have friends they want to invite to church or something and they do it and they dont show up. Everntually a year later they decide to come one time. People just dont think it is important. They dont know their eternal salvation hangs in the balance of it all. And they never will really understand the importance of it all intil after their baptism.

So Otto perez Molina won the elections yesterday. That made me laugh that nathan and brooke named their baby otto. Everytime someone talks about the president now i think of my nephew. So things were crazy these weekend with that going on. I dont really know anything about the canidates, but i know otto used to be the general of the military here. So thats cool. He said that he is going to clean up guatmala and make it a better place. He is going to take the military and get rid of all the gangs and drug dealers. But whatever.

So i found out something kind of annoying but might turn out good in the end today. They are going to hold all of are packages from now untill christmas then give us them all at christmas. They want everyone to have a present for christmas and it will make it a better christmas because we will get them all at once and be like wow. But aunt leann send a package she said last week about the trip and everything. But i guess i will have to wait till christmas to get it. But oh well. Its all good.

I dont know what else to say, not much has happened, so cya have a good week.

Love elder gardner

October 10, 2011

Hola. How is everyone doing?

Wow, so the new ensign is amazing. You guys got the same right, focused all on the book of mormon. I read like have of it this morning, it is amazing and I learned a lot from it. There was lots of things that I did not know.

For Example: Mormon had the vision of our day before he compiled the book of mormon. Then he complied the book of mormon according to what we needed in this day. So everything he put in is what he thought would be good for us today. I found that pretty intersting.

The plates were not on gold plates orginally. I should have know that but i didnt. But so mormon transfered it to gold. That makes a lot more sense.

The timeline in it is really interesting too. You should all look at it. And all of the stories are really good.

So I found and read that 4th missionary talk this week. It is so good. I understood it a lot more now that i am here in the mission. I really have been trying to to what it says. It says that i need to forget everything, all my wants, desires, likes, preferences, and everything. So I have been trying to do that. It is kind of hard sometimes but i am trying to do better at it. So thats what I have been working on this week. When I opened up dads letter it made me really think. Because I love the cardinals and cant wait but i need to not worry about it and not care, which is hard. And dont worry mom or dad. I have not thought about the cardinals all week till I opened up the letter.

So I got some presents for christmas for everybody. Well alomst now. So that is why I used a little money mom and dad. But i figured giving presents was a righteous cause. And everything is cheaper than dirt here. So ya. i dont know how much everybody will like them but there really cool to me. I tryed to find the best thing i could find here. But if you want something specfic from guatemala, you can tell me and ill try to get it.

I have found out how smart god is this week when he picks our comps. My comp is helping me a lot lot. He used to be exactlty like me when he entered the mission. He used to be kind of shy like me and didnt talk much,. He is a quite not very animated loud person. He wasnt the best at teaching lessons when he started and explaining everything. That is like the things that have been hard for me too. But he has helped me tons and tons. One thing that has helped is he has taught me how to contact people better. Before i just talked to them and they said no and ya. Now i talk to them ask questions, get to know them. Break the ice then talk about the gospel and it works a lot better. He is teaching me how to teach better too. I am glad that before my mission I learned the importance of being obedient and everything so now i can just focus on how to teach and to be louder and funner and everything. I am learning a lot and know what is true what somebody said in conference that god is our mission leader and puts people in our path for a reason. And everything has a reason. I am excited for the new oppurtunities I will have to learn and help more when I get a new comp in like a month.

Oh mom I think I threw away the medicine bottle, so i dont know what to tell you. Ill look for some more in my luggage and see if i can find it but sorry i thought you didnt need it. If it doesnt work oh well dont worry, I have the creame that you sent with me that is like a big one. It works pretty well. I do have some zits still, but thats because I am tired and too lazy some nights to put it on. So I will try to do better with that. And yes I have been wearing my retainer too.

Thanks for the letters from the young women mom and dad. That was a nice thing you though do to. I have not read them yet, but it is the though that counts more than anythings

Well love all of you. I hope your week is good and that you can be able to read the ensign of this months, Thats your homework for this week. I loved it. Sorry for the letter last week, I didnt have much time and was pretty mad after 2 hours of comptuers not working, so i was too frusrated to thing about anything and dad wrote me about the cardinals so thats what was on the mind. But ya thats it.

Love everybody, Elder Gardner

Brandon's pictures