Coaching

I have a couple of things I need to say to clear some things up. As it turned out, last week we actually didn't have people from Salt Lake come to teach us or go out with us like I thought was going to happen, but let me tell you the story that makes sense to me. We have had some Great stuff going on in the mission. We are making a new "Preach My Gospel" DVD and we have a "Super District" in our Mission that consists of six Elders and two Sisters. It was this group who received the teachers from Salt Lake and had the coaches.

So President Donaldson's plan was to use the members of the "Super District", and their companions to be the coaches for us, the "Reliable Group" that I am included in. So what actually happened was President Donaldson taught us how to better fulfill our purpose, work better with members and how to do begining teaching better. So the way it turned out, we had an Elder from the "Super District" work with us. We didn't get people from Salt Lake like we had thought was going to happen. Basically what happened is this was an experiment of President Donaldson's that is to better help our mission improve.

Now this is whats going to happen this week. I get to go out and be a Coach to another companionship on all the things that I got coached on. I will be out of my area for 3 days, coaching and helping other missionaries become more successful. It is going to be pretty exciting! I hope that I will be able to teach them everything I possiblily can.

But guess what? As a result of the training, we had 8 investigators at church Sunday!!!! That is almost unheard of! Just in my district, we had 18 new investigators at church! Now the only thing we need to do is get them with baptism dates and then get them baptized. I think we are learning what makes this work more successful. :-D

I am So glad to hear that Krista is doing well with everything and that she is going to have a baby!! That is So Awesome! But at least I will be home before the babies 1st birthday. haha So when is Krista due? When is Rachel due? I am going to have 3 new neices or nephews I haven't ever seen! Crazy. but this makes it all worth it.

We were able to confirm Ricardo in church yesterday and he asked me to do it. I was so nervous because it was my first one! I was pretty stressed out about saying everything right and using Spanish correctly, But I got up there, showed my faith by studying the night before, and went up and confirmed him. Afterwards, he told me that I said everything right and that he was really impressed. So that was an other miricle that I have seen in my life as a missionary. There is nothing that I have expierenced thus far in my life that is more exciting than being able to baptize and confirm one of our brothers, and a child of our Heavenly Father. I can't describe it, other than it was Awesome! :-) Well I think I have made this one long enough for today ;-) So I will talk with you later. Thank you everyone for all that you are doing for me and all the prayers that are said for me. it really makes a difference. Take care and I will talk with you next week. :-) ~ELDER GARDNER

Ricardo

Do I have a lot to tell you today!!!! We had a Great Thanksgiving dinner with our branch president, he is So Awesome, just like Bishop Fawcett. We didn't have turkey but whatever kind of meat it was, it was pretty good. :-) We had a really good time eating with them and spending time with them.

Then for Friday transfers, we got our call Thursday night and were told that both my companion and I were staying. That was good, we were also told that Elder Nelson would be staying. Elder Nelson and I will have been together, in the same apartment, for 6 months by the time this transfer is over on Jan 6. Elder Nelson and I get along really great, So I was happy to see that him and I will remain roommates. :-)

Then on Friday, we got a call from our new Zone Leader, Elder Nelson, aka my roommate, saying that he wasn't our District Leader anymore and that I will be the new District Leader!!!

So I am pretty excited,,,, but then I got to thinking that I am going to have a lot more responsibilities. And then to top it off, I was told that tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, from 8am to noon, we will be having a 3 day training seminar by church leaders coming from headquarters in Salt Lake City, and after that! we will have a training coach stay with us to teach us things and help us become better missionaries. Right now I am stressing out because the training coach will be in my very first district meeting! I do know my topic but it is still pretty scary, especially with someone from Salt Lake there....

But the best part about this last week was that we baptized Ricardo, age 17, yesterday, he asked me to do it and I will be sending pictures next week. it was Awesome! and what makes it even better, is his parents are thinking about the church and asking what makes it so different from other churches and why would their son want to come and get baptized so quick. We are going to start teaching them and hopefully get them baptized also:-) Everything is really good and rewarding but then also really stressful all at the same time. Just pray for me that I will be able to do my best to better help my new district and the people in my area grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

What I need is: my planners that I have sent home, I found out that it is better to just keep them with me because it is possible now that I could go back to areas I have already been and I may be able to help some of those people I have worked with earlier. I have sent home 5 planers, my MTC one, my trainer one, 2 with Elder Virrueta, and the other one with Elder Andelin, So send back all of the planners that I have sent home. Thank You for all that you do for me,,,,, only 26 more days until I get to call home again ;-) ~ELDER GARDNER

Interview on 11/16/09

I just wrote you the longest email ever and when I tried to sent it, it logged me out and erased it all... This week was pretty rough. We didn't get our investigators to church and a lot of other things didn't go the way we wanted. But what I really want to tell you today is that last week, we had interviews with President Donaldson and it was the best one ever! When I was talking with him, I told him that I am disappointed in myself because our investigators aren't progressing or anything and I felt like I was a bad missionary. He just looked at me and smiled and told me the coolest thing ever. He said: It isn't what your investigators do or don't do. It is what you do and don't do. Are you doing everything that you possibily can? Are you living all the rules? Do you love your companion? I answered yes to all of these and he said: Then you are not a failure as a missionary. Even though your numbers are not what you want them to be, you are doing all that you can to help your brothers and sisters, and that is what God wants you to do. I have been watching you and I know you are a Great missionary and I can count on you to get things done. Just keep doing the work and the lord will take care of the rest. """ After that interview I felt like a million bucks. He is such an amazing servant of the lord. .
We have to get going. we still have some things we have to do today so I will talk with you next week.
PS. I seriously have the best family the Lord could bless me with. if it wasn't for the love and support that I have from everyone, I don't think I would be where I am today. thank you so much for everything. ~ELDER GARDNER

Delet

Halloween for a missionary is horrible! haha we didn't get to talk to any of our investigators that evening because we were commanded by our mission president to return to our apartment as soon as it started getting dark. so yeah Halloween this year was a real downer.

I do have a good story. My companion and I were trying to contact a former investigator Sunday night, When we showed up at his house we found his younger brother Delet. We had talked to him twice before but were using him to get to his brother. but at that meeting with him, I felt impressed to give him a scripture to read. (this was about a week or two ago and we had given him a BOM) so when we found him home Sunday night we asked him if he had read it, he said he had, but he told us that he only believes in the Bible. I asked him if he thought it was possible for God to have more scriptures than just the Bible, he said yes, so I told him, that is what the BOM is, or LDM (Libro De Mormon in Spanish ;) so we talked more with him trying to get him to open up and talk with us. and it turned in to a really good discussion, and it was all in Spanish! So I now know without any doubt that God will put words into your mouth at the very hour, the very moment you need them. My Spanish isn't that great, but people can understand me and I can communicate with them and that is what matters right now. So my goal for studying is to keep polishing the Spanish I know, and increase my vocabulary.

About our investigator Delet, we talked more with him and got him interested in coming to church and to start talking with us more and eventually, he doesn't know this yet but to get him baptized! It was a really good experience for me.

My companion still doesn't have good Spanish, so I have to do most of the talking, I know he will start saying more soon. I love my companion but he has so much to learn. He is always trying to impress me or be better than me! I know I should be humble about it all but it just upsets me. But please.... don't give me advice about what to do and how I need to love him and try and build him up and all of that other stuff. I know that.

What really made my day was that we went to the temple today and were able to do 2 endowments. The only thing that keeps me going sometimes is the temple. It is just so amazing. I wish that we could go to the temple more than just 4 times a year. :-( Well I have to get going. it is really late and we still have to get our food for the week. I will talk with you on Monday. Love Ya. ~Elder Gardner

Eight Months

I don't know if I told you about our baptism last week. It was awesome! She was a 73 year old lady and as soon as she saw us walking towards her door, the first time, she said she knew we were the answer to her prayers. We confirmed her at Church yesterday. It was awesome, she is amazing. We might have at least 3 more baptisms this transfer that I am praying for. So remember to keep them in your prayers as well as your prayers for me ;-)

One of them, another Great Lady, we used 2 Ne 31 on Saturday and taught her the importance of baptism and invited her to be baptized, and it was amazing! She said she has wanted to get baptized, but she has just been waiting for the right missionaries to come along. She's had missionaries that would come by but never taught her the gospel, they were just her friends. So she was very excited that we taught her and asked her to be baptized and she could say Yes! She will be getting baptized this Sunday if all goes well. :-D

I did get the Missionary Mall pants last week, they are fine, they aren't as good as the originals that I came out with, but they will work, no worries. I noticed that you put more money on my card. thank you.

Rick and his family look so good! I can't believe how big and broad Daniel is getting, Wow! he might be able to beat me up by the time I get home ;-) I have to write president his letter so I better get going. Thank you for all that you do for me and all the support. I think I will be sending a box home during this transfer. So sometime before 11/25/09 and there will be some amazing hot sauce in there. I fell in love with this stuff. it is guacamole with habenero pepper sauce. I think Bishop and you and Rick will love it! but anyways, I got to go. love you! ~ELDER GARDNER

Golden contact

We had a lot to do this morning so we got on email a little late. Yes, we had transfers last Wednesday... and unfortunately, Elder Gunnell was transferred out to the desert. So I have a new companion, he has been out 4.5 months and his Spanish is... well, I won't judge. So yeah I am officially a senior companion now.
I have an awesome story for you,,,, Yesterday, we were on our way to Teresa's home to help her get ready and tell her the things she needs for her baptism on Sunday. I had to call our ward mission leader so he would know what was going on with Teresa, while I was on the phone, my companion saw this guy beating up his wife right out there on the street. So he took off and didn't tell me, and I am left there by myself not knowing what was going on. I hurried up and hung up and jet over to my companion, he had broke up the fight without getting physically involved so that was good. He had the cops called and they took like 20 min to get there. All this time the husband was cussing us out continually. He came over to us and got right up in our faces ready to fight, just then two K-9 units and one regular police unit showed up and stopped this guy in his tracks. So yeah that was pretty exciting.

We were now an hour late in getting over to Teresa's home but we knew we had to go over there, and while we are biking there, we see this guy walking toward us so I am thinking, oh oh, not again. We stopped and he asked us what was going on, we told him, then we got on the subject of religion, how convenient ;-) so we get talking and I pretty much teach him the first lesson right there and he is soaking this in like a sponge. I gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he wants to read it from cover to cover. I was so excited at this point and told him that we have a church just up the street and he is more than welcome to come, he is like "ok awesome I will be there tomorrow I am really interested in what you guys have to say, I know that God put you guys in my path for a reason." I just wanted to scream,,,, I was so happy!!!!! We got his info and all and he did come to church, all 3 hours and after church he said, " you guys are more than welcome to come over anytime you want. and I will definitely be coming to church next week!" I was Super Happy and we know that we need to work really hard with George so we can get help him get baptized. he is Awesome.

So yes we did have a baptism yesterday, That makes 7 now, President called last night to congratulate us and as we were talking he mentioned how it was my first baptism as a senior companion, and that I now know how to baptize... so I'm not sure what that means but usually when he says something like that, someone becomes a trainer or a District Leader or Zone Leader, and right now, I don't think I could do that so we will just have to wait and see.

Yes I did get my watch, and the Zucchini bread, Thank You, I got it last week and ate the bread in 6 days haha. The pants came in today and they seem to fit me well. We really don't have much going on other than those stories I told you so I will talk with you next week and let you know how George is doing. Thank you for all that you do. I don't know if you added money to my account but I need more money, I have to buy some stuff to keep me warm out here is this weird California weather. ;-) humidity is rough. I got to go. LOVE YOU! ~ELDER GARDNER

Teresa

I actually have a lot to tell you this time, yeah I hate my bike. it is the worst thing I have ever done. I have had nothing but problems with it. I've had to get my front and back derailers fixed cuz they were out of tune. and yeah $57.77 is the cheapest I could find. I am hoping that I get put in a car area pretty soon so I don't have to waste so much money on my stupid bike. I would like to have more money on my card so I don't have to call President Donaldson and get him to call you to put more money on my card, that is just embarrassing. I would like my balance to stay above $200. I have done pretty well with my money so far. I always buy whatever food I want cuz I don't buy the name brand stuff, I buy the "Kroger" stuff and it tastes just as good.

This week was pretty cool. we received a printout of all of the referrals for our area over the past year. We started going to all of them and this one lady, Teresa invited us in and started talking and everything. When we found out what her needs were, we decided to offer a prayer, I said it, and when we finished she was bawling, she said that just a few minutes before we got there she had been praying for some help and guidance, and we knocked on her door, so she was very grateful for us. We invited her to get baptized and she accepted and will be getting baptized this Sunday the 18th. I hope Elder Gunnell and I stay together one more time so we can get all these baptisms done. Speaking of knocking on doors, President Donaldson asked us not to knock that much because it isn't the best way to do missionary work. the best way to do missionary work is through the members. So we have been working with ward members and getting referrals and we have been pretty busy.
So about this flu shot thing, we have to pay 25 bucks to get it so I was hoping I would get some money today from you ;-) but I think I will be able to get 25 bucks some other way.
I am not getting fat or anything I just don't have the same muscle mass that I did before when I was lifting weights and working out every day. I have lost the upper body muscle mass. nothing I need to worry about tho.
How is the family doing? How is Daniels football team doing? What is his position? Lexie is so big! she is going to be as big as Jeremy was when I left. wow. but that is just way the cookie crumbles ;-) I have to get going. I have to get my flu shot and all so I will talk with you later. love you. hope to have some money coming my way soon. LOVE YOU for everything. ~ELDER GARDNER