Gladys

Hey mom and dad,

So I can't even remember all of things I have told you but I don't think I have told you about this one. On the 30th of April and the 1st of May we are going to be having a special guest come to San Diego and sing and bear testimony of our Lord and Savior. You will never guess who that is. So I will just tell you ;-) GLADYS KNIGHT! She is going to be here for 2 days giving 4 firesides of singing and testimony driven songs. It is giving our mission a chance to become more united as a people. So what this is, an opportunity for members to invite their nonmember friends to the Stake Center and hear her wonderful music. There is only going to be like 6000 or so tickets to get in. You have to bring a nonmember otherwise you can't get in. Well you can but it isn't guaranteed. it is going to be awesome. Other missions have been doing this same thing and one mission that just had it, received over 4000 referrals for the missionaries to go visit and teach. It is going to be awesome! The only thing that I am worried about is that it is going to be at our Stake Center,,,, meaning, my companion and I are the ones that are going to be under the magnifying glass for the next little while. It doesn't really bother me but it is still a lot to have resting on your shoulders hahaha .

We just found a family of 7 that we are going to get started towards baptism. We went over there yesterday just to see how they were doing and everything. So while we were there, we were in our "church clothes" or suits. We didn't even mention church to them. We had the intentions to invite them, but they asked us to visit our church! It was awesome! But this transfer is almost over, only 9 more days of the transfer. I am pretty sure that Elder Roney and I are staying, but I don't know for sure. I hope that he doesn't leave. I am pretty sure that next transfer we are going to have 8 baptisms. We just have to teach them and invite them with the spirit, having no doubt that they will do the things we teach them and invite them to be baptised. It is awesome being out here in San Diego working with these people. We have to find more people and get more people baptized but that will come. We just have to do our part.

OH! So next week I am going to have the best letter ever! We are having something really special and really rare happening and I can't wait to tell you about it next week! But I got to get going now. Thank you for everything you do for me and everything. Oh if you have the chance, can you send me my basketball, my Wilson Ultimate? Just take all the air out of it and collapse it so it doesn't take up that much space. I am going to send out some packages to you this week so you can update your pictures of my mission and stuff like that. So yeah I will talk with you next week. take care! Love you! ~ELDER GARDNER

Temple Day

Hey mom and dad,

We did go to the temple but the temple isn't open on Mondays so we went today, Tuesday. The only way that we can go to the temple is on preparation day, so we moved it to today. Sorry about that, but yeah I am just glad that you didn't call my mission president :-)

So the past two weeks Elder Roney and I have been out of our area coaching our missionaries on how to become greater missionaries. It was so much fun being with President Donaldson for those days and hearing him teach. He is so awesome!

The only thing that I didn't like about it was that we had to be out of our area and away from our investigators for that long. We did however have a baptism on Sunday the 14th and I baptized her. We found her about 8 or 9 days before her baptism and she was really prepared to be taught and accept the gospel. It was awesome. I have been so blessed that 4 of my 10 baptisms have been super prepared to hear the gospel and follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was my first baptism as a Zone Leader. We should have 2 more baptisms hopefully this week. We have a lot of people that are close but they still won't comitt to a baptism date. They think they have to know everything first.

I can't believe how much I have learned about the gospel on my mission so far, and I still have a little less than a year to go! I can't imagine what it is going to be like a year from now. But that isn't important. What is important, is what is happening right now and each day up to the day I come home.

I don't remember if I have told you in an other email, but my mind isn't thinking about school right now. I still have too much to do and so much going on. I can't even think about what I want to do with my life. haha. All I know is that if I keep focused on what I need to do here now and stay focused up to the day I come home. The Lord will bless me even more than if I had everything planned out for when I come home. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying I will not think about it, but I still have 11 months left, so maybe we can talk about it in 7-8 months from now. ;-)

So how is everything going back home? Good I assume. I bet the cat is leaving fluffs of hair everywhere. hahaha I would just shave him bald. Then you won't have to worry about cat hair. But you will have to keep him inside or put sunscreen on him if he does go outdoors haha. :-D

I need to send my camera home to so everyone can see the new pictures I have taken. Then you can watch more than just MTC pictures, haha. I will have to print some off before I do. I should have a package coming home to you in the next week or 2.

Thank you for everything! I don't think I would be where I am in my life if it wasn't for my parents and the leaders that I had growing up and keeping me accountable to my standards and staying true and faithful.

Oh,,,, so Elder Noel is sitting next to me right now and he just found some stuff about our mission on the LDS newsroom site. It has an interview with President Donaldson and other stuff about the Mormon Battalion Historical site here. So you can check it out. But we have to go. I will talk with you next week. see you later. ~ELDER GARDNER

MTE

OK, So I haven't really had to do anything super hard yet, but they are going to start here pretty soon haha. We did have to go talk to the Stake President and inform him how well the missionaries are doing in his Stake and stuff like that. President Donaldson was there, so I am already getting what I wanted! :-) More time around President Donaldson!

The Stake President meeting was 2 weeks ago when the transfer started. This last week we had the first round of Mission Training Excerise/Exchange (MTE) For 3 days we listened and talked with President Doanaldson and discussed ways that we can best help the mission improve and grow. Possibly multipling baptisms by 10 times! How sweet would that be? I am going to be a part of something incredible and I am just loving it. This week and next week, we will be out with other missionaries, training them on the things that we discussed in MTE and helping them put it into practice. It is a lot like the program that we had 3 months ago, but this time I got to help put it together and organize it :-)

Ever since Thursday, the last day that we were organizing the MTE, we have seen miracles happen. During the MTE, President Donaldson made us a special promise. He said, if we will put things of the world behind us, have a more sense of urgency and diligence in this work, we will be blessed. Our investigators that we are working with will begin to progress faster than we have ever thought possible, and the Lord will help us as leaders of the mission, to start multiplying baptisms in our area. Then in the zone we work with and then the mission.... Elder Roney and I decided to do that. We prayed and asked the Lord help us, that we would like to have 5 baptisms in the month of March.

Already we have been seeing miracles and changes. We went over to a members home on Friday, sat down with one of her non member sisters and started talking with her. We found out that she has been having a rough time with everything in her life lately and is looking for something to fill this gap that she feels she has. So Elder Roney and I took some thought and began to teach her the restoration. We taught her with more power and more from the spirit than I have ever done before in my mission. We gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read it. She said yes. We then were getting ready to leave, so we asked her if she would be willing to pray. She was a little hesitant at first but then said yes. In all of my mission experiences for one year, I had never heard a more heart felt spirit driven prayer to our Heavenly Father to know of the truth that we had just shared with her. She was crying during the entire prayer, the spirit was in the room and testifying to her with every word she said that what we had taught her was true. She finished her prayer and we were all sitting there, quiet for a minute or two. We asked her if she had any questions before we left. She told us that she was baptized before in the Catholic Church and was wondering if she would need to be baptized again. Elder Roney and I told her that we could answer her question by using the scriptures.

We went to 2 Ne 31 and read it, verse by verse explaining the doctrine of Christ. It was my turn to teach and use verses 11 and 12, so we read them and we helped her answer her own question. As I asked her the question that the Holy Ghost was prompting me to say, I saw a click and she understood that she needs to be baptized by someone who has the authority to do it. Elder Roney and I believe that she will be getting baptized this next Sunday. She came to church and loved it.

So we have already seen the promise that President Donaldson gave to us being fulfilled. We are going to have a lot of good experiences over the next 5 weeks. It is awesome. I am so blessed to be able to have this opportunity to do this work and be a part of something so great. Thank you for teaching me while I was young the things I needed to do to become the person I am and will become. Love you guys so much. and will talk with you next week.

~ELDER RYAN GARDNER

PS. Exactly one year from today, March 1st, I will be home... I don't have that much time left. I have to make it count.