Good Morning

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.

Transfered!!!!

Oh my gosh you will never guess what happened to me at transfers!

OK, so it was Tuesday night, the night that the Zone Leaders call and let us know who will be packing and who will be picking up their new companion, and to my amazement I was the one getting transferred!

So I started packing and getting ready. All the Elders kept calling me, trying to find out about transfer rumors, so I just didn't answer. The next morning, Wednesday, we arrived at transfers and I heard a rumor that I was going to be a Zone Leader. I just didn't believe it. me, a Zone Leader? haha yeah right. So we all sat down to do our transfers and President said, "Elder Roney, please stand up, you need a new companion don't you? Elder Gardner stand up, you are the new Zone Leader for the Sweetwater Zone. Plus you have a car now" :-D I was in shock. I couldn't believe it, and I almost didn't want to believe it.

President went on through the transfer and finished the meeting. Then we had a Zone Leader Council with President Donaldson to discuss how we can best help our Zones and be good examples. We sat down and had an amazing 2 hour discussion and I have never felt so good in my mission than right then. The first words out of President Donaldson's mouth was that everyone in this room has been specifically called by God to help our mission progress.... that hit me like a ton of bricks. So this past week has been pretty busy trying to learn all of the new responsibilities. Like I said earlier, my new companion is Elder Roney, from Utah, he has been out 9 months, and this is his 2nd transfer as a ZL companion.

This area I am in now, just had 5 baptisms and 10 the transfer before that. We have an assignment to go to the Marine Corp Recruit Depot (MCRD) to teach marines there. That is something I have always wanted to go and do. It is a little harder because we teach by ourselves, we don't have our companion there to help us. So it is pretty much up to you. It is a lot of fun. Last Sunday, I talked to this one recruit that has been thinking about joining the church for a while but just didn't think he was ready, so we talked and I found out what has been holding him back. we talked about the restoration, word of wisdom, baptism, priesthood and the Holy Ghost. He was still a little shaky about it, so I asked him to pray right then and there and I would come back in 10 min to get his decision on being baptized. So I went and talked to another marine that had just been baptized the week previous, he had a lot of questions, so I was able to visit with him and hopefully I was able to help him. Then I went back to talk with the first guy. He said that he was ready to be baptized. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time right then. So he will be getting baptized when he gets back from Camp Pendleton. That was a Great experience. Our area is way awesome. We have a ton of potentials in this area. We have 3 families of 6 that we are going to start working with and hopefully get them baptized in a month. So if you could, pray for them to have their hearts opened and receive the desire. and pray for my companion and me that we will be able to teach them the things that they need to know.

This work is amazing, I have never had this much fun in my life time. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and can catch us off guard. When we think we know what is going on and we think we have everything figured out---- BAM it gets changed in an instant. Thank goodness for prayer, it is one of the best tools that we have to ask for help and receive guidance from our Father in Heaven. I am so grateful for the love and support from everyone back home in Pocatello and for the emails and letters I have received from the ward. Thank You So Much. ~ELDER GARDNER

Shadow Branch President

Hey. thanks for the letters and emails of encouragement. :-) they help but I still have a lot on my plate. So to answer some of your questions about what I am doing... yes I am still a District Leader, I am still a follow up trainer/senior companion, and I am a "Shadow Branch President" meaning that President Donaldson wants me to do everything I possibily can to do to get this branch up and going. It is a HUGE responsibility and IF I am successful, I don't know what will happen next.

Let me tell you about this last Friday, the 5th. President Donaldson called us and asked us to go to the Sharp Hospital and give a blessing to an investigator from the Carlsbad Mission, so we did, and it was in Spanish of course. It was pretty Amazing, I said a lot of things I didn't know I could say and still don't know how I said them. When we got home I read my Patriarchal Blessing, the part about the gift of healing... it was so Awesome! I felt really good about the blessing and that the 9 year old will get better.

Then later that day I did a baptism interview for the sisters in my district. His name is Johnathan "Jack" Estrada. He Is from New Jersey and just barely turned 18. As I sat there talking with him, getting to know him better, He told me that as soon as he turned 18 recently, he moved here and moved in with his internet girlfriends grandma. A year ago, his girlfriend got him interested in the church over the internet and sent missionaries to his house. His family didn't want him to continue, but he knew it was true. He was 17 at the time and decided then, that he was going move to San Diego in a year and get baptized, so thats what he did. He is a really good kid and I respected what he did,,,, to a point. So he passed the interview and was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday.

Later that Friday, Elder Morris and I went over the branch president's house and taught him a planning principle that president Donaldson taught me. As we were leaving his house it started pouring rain, ( it was 8:00 pm at this point) and we decided,,,, acutally I decided that we should go see one more investigator that lived just down the street. So we went over there and knocked on her door Her 15 year old son answered the door, and said she wasn't home. Elder Morris said thats alright, we will just come back some other time. I didn't feel right that he said that, so I decided to persuade the 15 yr old to invite us in and it worked. We went in and got to know him and everything. Well 5 minutes later, his mom showed up so I was pretty happy. We had a good discusion with her and we taught her an object lesson with a piece of wood and a couple of nails, ( i'll show you after my mission don't worry ) and she was very impressed. I felt that we should invite her to be baptized and we did. She accepted, but said that she doesn't feel ready. I reassured her that if she will do the things that we ask her to do and keep talking with us, she will become ready. So we will be working with her and help her get baptized on the 21st of Feb.

It was a really good day, we added the 15 year old as an investigator, so I think we could have some success with that. Just have to do everything we can and the Lord will do the rest.

I know that I am not perfect and never in this life time will be, but as you know, never is not a part of my vocab. So I try to make sure that everything I do, is as close to perfect as I can. Most of the time it is, but I need to stop stressing out when its not. I think I am starting to go bald... receding hair line... hmm.... anyways,

I tried what you sugguested to do in your letters mom, and it seems like it has worked hahaha but now I don't have time to email my mission pressident ;-) just kidding. but anyways time is short and we got to get going. I love you guys. I KNOW I would not be out here, on my mission, doing the things I am able to do without the loving guidence that I have had for 20 years, 1 month and 6 days, and 11 hours, 43 min. I truely have been blessed with an amazing family that I love so so much. Just a year and a couple of weeks and I will be home, starting a new adventure. I will need your guidence just like President Donaldson has been here for my guidence as a missionary. Everytime I see him, I see you dad. and everytime I see Sister Donaldson, I see you mom. I hope this letter has been a good one to read, cuz it was an awesome one to write. Take care and I will talk with you next week. love you. ~Elder Gardner

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