3-26-12

Hey family!!

Thanks for the updates :) Everything seems ever-changing in Vernal. Hard to believe! I wish I could be there to help with the trailer carport. We did a lot of service this week, and have more planned for next week. I am especiallyliking the meals that follow ther service activities :) The camper seems fun. I can`t wait to get home and enjoy it with you! 

I am happy, and healthy :) The members are amazing right now, and very helpful with the meals. We`ve been getting lunches, and several dinners! (which is really rare). We have an FHE tonight. We`re watching the testaments, and eating empanadas. MMMMM. My fav. 

This last week was long, and slow again. I hope we`re not in a slow patch. We`re working hard and trying to find new people, while retaining our current investigators. It`s hard to do when they are not complying. BUt, they are so close we don`t want to drop them just yet. We`re praying for them. And as another surprise, our old investigator came back and wants to get baptized, but he didn`t come to church, nor did he show up to our appointment. 

One day this last week, almost every single one of our plans and appointments fodged us. So, we spent the whole day clapping houses. The thing was that no one even came outside to talk to us, and the few that did wouldn`t even let us speak before shaking their fingers and going back inside. It was a long, hard day. But my comp helped me change my perspective that the Lord needs to teach us something. And we need to learn it before it can get better. So my prayers have changed from please help us have success, to help me open my eyes. I`m here on the Lord`s errand, not mine. I am here by his request and in this area through his inspiration to our president. I only hope my eyes are opened enough to accomplish what I am here to do. 

The members here have become my family. I`ve been here for four months in this area. It`s a great area. It`s so true what every missionary says that you just fall in love with the people. They are such great examples. One recent convert really wants to come to Utah to visit the Salt Lake temple. I told her if she can come, she has a place to stay, I hope you don`t mind :) 

Well we have a zone activity today. MOVIES!!! I can`t wait. We watched Tangled at the last activity. lol. I miss movies A LOT. All my friends went to California and disneyland for spring break and sent my pictures. JEALOUS! Lol. But that`s okay, I`m VERY happywith where I am. It just gives me good, fun things to look forward to when I come home. 

I love you guys! I still have photos to send from my last baptism. I`ll try to remember next week :) 

Chao!

Elder Gardner

Rhet's Birthday Book

Family & Friends,


We are putting a photo album together for Rhet for his birthday and would love it if you would send us a short birthday message for him.  If you would like to attach a picture of you and your family, we will print it out and include it with the message.  I'm sure Rhet would love to see you.  Please send to tgra23@yahoo.com.  Feel free to forward to any other family or friends.  We're hoping to have it in the mail in the next week or so, so that he can get it in time. 


Thanks!

3-19-12

Hey yall!

I`m doing well :) 

I`ll keep an eye out for the package, but we only get mail once a transfer. So it could be another month before I will actually receive it. 

This last week was a little tough, it was super slow. And, all of our appointments kept falling through. A lot of tracting this week. But we got a couple good return appointments with them. Always working! 

The confirmation of Nahuel was yesterday. It went well. The ward is an awesome support for them and they are loving it and looking forward to the priesthood this coming september. 

Argentinas weather is crazy. Mood swings. Its nice some days, and hot others still. April should cool us down hopefully. I have been missing the cold lately. We`ll see if I say that in the middle of July with no heater :) 

Nothing really too crazy! Elder Reynolds and I have been struggling to find new investigators, we`re trying a couple different things to find new people. But, the best way to find them is through the members, and references. But, we`re not receiving too many lately. Our ward is great. They kind of think of us as home teachers a lot of them. I think they forget we`re here to first find new people, and then rescue the others. They all just want us to spend our time with inactive members. That`s important too, but it isn`t the first thing on the list. 

I had Argentine sour krout yesterday. It`s better than US sour krout. 

I miss good ol` US food. Today, I just wanted a good polar king bacon cheese burger. Next  package kay? The food here is super good, but it`s always the same things. Not much variety. I could use some spicy food too. It is all very mild here. I do love empanadas and ñoquis. Argentines are pasta masters. I eat a lot of pasta. And it`s very cheap, so when we don`t eat pasta at a members house, we usually just cook pasta. It`s only 2 pesos a bag (45 cents). 

Well, I`m excited to see pics of the trailer. I hope all is well with you guys!

Love ya!

Elder Gardner

3-12-12

Hey fam!

Was up.  The showers are nice :) we have water again. But... no hot water heater. So cold showers! Lol. I could really go for a warm shower. maybe next week :)

It`s still summer here. Fall comes about the end of march. Today it`s really rainy again. Cecilly is going to Honduras! Not too far from me, just a hop, skip, and jump across brazil, columbia, and panama. :)

The trailer sounds fun. I`m anxious to see it and start making plans in 17 months. Almost going ot be 16 soon! So weird. My comp will hit a year in a week. He`s freaking out. We didn`t get transferred, so we`ll be together for another 6 weeks. I`m happy. Actually, only one person in our whole zone got transferred. That`s weird, usually it`s a lot more than just one. But our zone is doing well. We have the most investigators with baptismal dates as a zone, we`re working hard. Ther is more work to do, but we`re working hard. I do plan to take the language exam when I get back. I`ve been thinking about majoring in Spanish maybe, especially if I do medical school. Spanish would be really useful working in the U.S.

Funny story. So today, early this morning, because neither of us are getting transferred we had to go to the hospital for my comps appointment for his eyes. And we had to travel for like 1.5 hours on the train and half way through, the whole sky was just BLACK! And it started raining and storming soooo bad. It was fun :) But it flooded all the streets in the city that we had to go to, like they shut down all the streets and stuff because there was too much water. Sometimes when it`s like that, the water makes the lighter cars float and it sends them down like a river. lol. But all the streets around the train station were flooded, but we had to get to the hospital because we traveled so long! So, we just took off our shoes, and waded through the 1.5 feet deep river bare foot :) crazy huh? Lol. It was sooo funny. we were just like uh... okay! Shoes off! lol.

We had another baptism yesterday. He gets to be confirmed next sunday. We have one more investigator that wants to get baptized, so we`ll see if we can help her.  We need to find some more investigators. So, clapping houses! Did I ever tell you that you don`t knock doors here? Nope. All the houses have like 5-6 foot metal gates around the houses. So you just stand on the side walk and clap your hands instead of knock. It was so weird at first but I`m used to it now. It seems weird to knock now.

I made what Nick calls Jesus bread today :) That`s the type of bread they eat here, and a lot of peopel cook them on open fires outside in clay ovens. It`s soooo yummy. We haven`t gotten any for a while, so I really wanted some and asked a member for the recipe. IT doesn`t really have any flavor... :) I`ll try again next week. But I`m satisfied with it being my first time.

I got a little sick yesterday. Right after the baptism.  I`m thinking it was something I ate the daybefore. but who knows. IT could be the water too. Some recent converts gave me some lemon juice. That helped relax my stomach. And then right after I filled it with dulce de leche cake and tacos. lol. I didn`t give it a break, but when I get offered food, I`m not going to turn it down!! I`ll look for the package. Somehting I was told was when you send food, just say like snacks or something. Especially if you send jerky, applesauce, or any kind of sauce. They will either charge a fortune for me to pick it up, steal it, or not give it to me. So just put like snacks, candy, or something. Just a heads up, one thing you keep sending that I don`t really want is crystal light. I appreciate the thought, but all I drink here is juice and soda lol. So when you send it to me, I`ve just been giving it to members. They love it though! lol. American juice :)

Hmmm I think that is just about all the news for this week. We did service on saturday. Our whole elders quorum was suposed to come, but no one showed. So, elder Reynolds and I digged up, chopped roots, and pulled out a tree by ourselves. It took like three hours. We were sooo tired, but the job got done :) I miss outisde work on saturday mornings. Be thankful for lawn mowers too. A lot of the time, they chop grass with machetes.

Love you guys!

pics from Rhet

3-5-12

Padres,

I`m doing well this week. No weird sicknesses or anything! Weird right? I am starting to gain weight back :) Now I weight 167 instead of 163. I`ve started to pig out. Two members had birthdays yesterday. CAKE!!! The cake here is reallllly good. Lots of peaches and dulce de leche. The peaches are in season here. I`m a happy camper. They are really good. I`ve eaten a lot this last week.

The weather is starting to cool down. RIght now it`s down pouring rain. It`s a nice break from how hot it was for a while. It`s still pretty humid though.

We have been without water for three days. Also our hot water heater broke because it couldn`t fill up with water. So this morning, after not showering for two days and feeling disgusting, we hurried and filled all of our pots and pans with water and put them on the stove to warm them up so we could shower :) We wetted ourselves down with the cold dribbling water (because there wasn`t any water pressure either) and then poured the hot water on us from the pots :) Odly, after two days, it was the best shower I`ve had in a very long time. lol. We reeked. Argentina is crazy like that and will just cut the water or electricity to neighborhoods. We`ve never been without water for this long though. Maybe that`s why it`s raining! So we can get a lil shower on the way home :)

Victor`s confirmation was yesterday. It went well. I still can improve with my blessings. It`s hard to not have done them at all in English, and then have to do them in a different language right off the bat! lol. But, they`re improving. Nahuel, his twin brother, is still planning to get baptised this coming Sunday. Oh and those pictures, you can put any of them on the blog if you want.

We have some great investigators right now. 2 more that are prospective baptisms. All the other elders think I`m getting transferred this coming Monday, so we`ll see! It`s possible. I`ll probably find out Friday or Saturday. But you guys won`t find out until next Monday when I write :)

Love you guys! Hope you get to enjoy the trailor soon.

Elder Gardner