11-26-12

Hey family!

Yeah things are going really well. The area is... a lot different than Glew. Not that it`s bad, it`s just harder. The houses are huge, and with like cobble rock roads and tons of palm trees and stuff. It`s a beautiful area, but hard to preach the gospel. No body even leaves the houses when we go tracting. They all have doorbells with speakers and stuff, they just tell us no through the speakers lol. It`s a lot different than the dirt roads and houses made of tin in Glew :) But that`s okay, new challenges bring new experiences. My comp is farely new so he still is trying to get used to the area as well. We took a bus trying to get to a different part of our area and we got lost and ended up two cities away :) lol. That was a long morning... The area is huge, and we have like 4 different train stations, and three different train lines. But I like it. As we speak we are in a HUGE mall with like movie theaters and stuff. Tempting... I want to go see the Hobbit. But we are doing well :)
We were supposed to have President Arnold do a mission tour with us this week, but he had an emergency meeting in SLC so he can`t make it. We are having an area seventy do it now, but we have meetings all week with that.
I did get my packages, last tuesday. THANKS!!!! I loved it all. And my comp was needing his shoes. He called me yesterday and had to go to the emergency in the middle of the night becaus he had a kidney stone. Lucky him right?

When I first got to the mission, one of my fillings in my teeth started to bother me, but then it went away; now it is hurting really bad. I might need to make an appointment with a dentist, we`ll see. Luckily I know a really good dentist farely close. He was in my ward in La Plata, he is the first councilor in the stake presidency.
The new cell phones do look pretty awesome. And the ones I see are the ones in Argentina, which are like 10 years behind us in the states. I can`t imagine the new ones in the states!
Coco and cici do look so much like each other! It`s nuts.
So, we have some new mission news. Because of the new wave of missionaries, they are cutting the time in the MTC for spanish speaking elders. The new time for them is only four weeks! Sheesh I was in there for 9 and a half weeks! But that means that they have to change the transfer dates for us to be able to receive all the new ones. AKA transfers will be every 4 weeks instead of 6. And after march, all the elders that are leaving to their houses are supposedly leaving two weeks earlier to make up for the difference. So, according to the office elders, my new date for coming home isn`t the 29 of july, it`s the 15. Crazy right? We are not 100% positive what`s going to happen, but yeah.
Well, All is well here in Adrogue. I`m happy, and we are working hard dad, don`t worry. Can`t wait to hear from ya!

Love ya

Elder GARdner

11-19-12

Hey family!!!

So, I have news!!! I have been trasferred! After 11 months in Glew, I got trasferred suuuuper far. Just kidding... only three train stations away lol. But I am happy with the change. I am now in Adrogue, where the offices of the mission are. So, I am just in one of the most richest parts of Buenos Aires... lol. It`s realllllllly nice. The houses are castles. Which means that it is a tougher area for missionary work (that is until Elder Gardner showed up). I am excited though. President has called me to be District leader so that will be an adventure! I live in an apartment with 4 other elders, we`re five in total. The other three are the elders in the offices. But! We have the only pench in the mission with air conditioning :) That`s okay, I`m not mad. One of the office elders is my old comp, elder Parker. So we`ll have a blast. I was sad to leave Glew, and all the people I have grown to love, but after 11 months, it was time.
We did have a baptism on saturday! YEAH! His name is Oscar, and he is awesome. He is like 50 years old, and we are going to baptize his mom in two weeks. Well WE as in the elders of Glew... They all sent me off well in Glew. We had three dinners last night... And I woke up feeling amazing running to the bathroom with explosive squitters. MMMMM Chao Glew! lol.
My new comp is Elder Romanella. He is Argentine, but has lived in Cancun for the last 10 years. He speaks english really well. He is a newby, he arrived to Argentina the same time as my hijo, elder Aguero. But he is really chill.
I didn`t even remember that it was thanksgiving lol.
Well things are going well. I am happy, and content with all the changes. I love ya family, and I hope all is well!!!

Elder Gardner

Chao

11-12-12

Hey there family!

Things are going well. This last week was a little slower, and a little harder too. But this week is already starting amazing, so I can´t complain. I really can´t express how important studying is. If I don´t study well in the mornings, my day goes horribly. And when I first got here on the missoin I thought that the hour we have to do personal study was demasiado but now that I´ve grown to appreciate it, it´s not enough. There are so many things to study. I hope taht I can still do that when I get home from the mission; study an hour every day. But we´lll see how it all goes.
I´m starting to feel the need to decide what I want to do after the mission, but I have no idea still! I´ve never been good at making decisions... but Peegerd told me not to worry about it :) So I´ll give it some more thought and try not to worry about it too much. I´m trying to use my patriarchal blessing to help me decide what to do, so maybe I´ll get some inspiration :)
That´s awesome about Brisa Ruppe. I would love to learn Italian. I heard after spanish, it´s super easy. Maybe I´ll go visit her in Rome ;)
I miss you guys, and am happy that this is my last Christmas without the fam. only 8 months left. It still seems like a long time, but I know it will fly by. But I am excited to spend some time with ya´ll.
Interviews with president went well. Short, sweet, and to the point like always lol. He just asked how I´m doing, and had a couple questions, and taught a little bit as well. We have a really good president. Too bad my last month in the mission I will have a different president.
Transfers are on monday. Maybe my next letter to you guys will be from a different area! Who knows, maybe I´ll be here forever in Glew :)

Well I love you!!! Que tenga un buen dia!

Elder gardner

11-5-12

Hey fam fam

So I don´t know what it is, but my email won´t send the videos... so I´ll have to keep trying with that... Thanks for the packages. Hopefully we get them this week. They normally only take a week or two to get here. Smart thinking sending the shoes separately. Elder Aguero needs new shoes, all his shoes are from missionaries that served in his ward in Paraguay like three years ago. So they have already served a mission, and are pretty hammered.
Halloween looks like it was fun :) Peegerd sent me some pics of the other two kids on halloween. Here, halloween doesn´t even exist lol. I had forgotten it was halloween! Yeah I know there are so many people serving missions lately. Sara Mcquivey got her mission call as well this last week. She is going to Fortaleza Brazil. So we´ll be sort of neighbors for a little while. But when she gets to the mission field, I will only have like a month left in the mission. lol.
We have a lot of work here... We keep gaining and losing people. It´s really sad to work so hard with someone, and have them progress to a good point, and then crash... But we are doing what we can, we just leave it all to the agency!
Tomorrow we have interviews with president, it´s been a long time since I´ve talked to him so that will be good. Yeah, transfers are coming up. only two weeks from today! I have no idea where I´m going or even if I will end up leaving. who knows. We are working well together so it could be that I end up staying to keep working strong with my comp. But if I do stay, i will pass my sencond christmas in Glew :) Not a bad thing though, I enjoy my time here. A change would be nice, just to change things up a bit. But it takes a while to get used to an area, and I know EVERYTHING about Glew. lol.
It is hot... I´m starting the sweating season. In about a week, I won´t be dry until april... lol. Not really looking forward to that. The humidty kills me.
I think october will be the best month to come back with you guys to visit. It´s spring, and the weather is nice, not too hot and not too cold. It´s really pretty too with all the trees, fruits, and flowers.
President Stapley ends his mission the beginning of July. So I will have a new mission president for the last three weeks of my mission lol. That will be interesting.
Well I love you guys, and I hope all is well!!!

Chao!

Elder Garnder

10-29-12

Hey family!!!

So, I made you a video... but it won´t let me load it, because it´s bigger than 25 MB... sorry. Next week I will make it shorter and send it :) Sorry...
Things are going super well!!! This week was awesome. We had 30 lessons this week. The normal is 20, so we felt really good about that. We had a baptism and another was supposed to get baptized, but had a family emergency.. Stupid Satan always getting in the way!!! But this week we should get her baptized so no worries. :) We were really busy this week running from one end of the area to the other. We are working a lot with the priests in the ward to help prepare them for their missions. Some of them have already started their papers! They only have 17 years!!! That is crazy to me. But that is also super awesome for them.
I´m super bummed about the video. I also made some videos for my friends, that are not as long, so I can at least send those, and next week, I will send you a video :) I am super happy right now! Things are going well. i love my area, the ward, the people. It really will be hard to leave ARgentina. Cirila the older lady we baptized a while ago is realllly hillarious. She says the funniest things. she just turned 75 yesterday. She is teaching us Quetchua, and it is hard. We are going to pass by on saturday and bring her something for her birthday. Their son is building a house for them right now, and it is huge (well for Argentines it´s huge). But he doesn´t like buenos aires, and wants to move back to his house in La Tierra de Fuego which is the very tip of south america almost touching antarctica. So he said if he ends up moving back, he would just give us his house. That would be awesome for the missionaries. But I doubt president would accept that. So maybe I´ll just tell him to give it to me so I can have a house here in glew, and can come visit often :)
I´m glad you guys had a good time in Kc and Bransen. I could use a vaca :) Only 9 more months. :) That is nothing. I was talking to my comp yesterday, and I only have 6 transfers left. That is nuts. It is nothing! And weird to think tat you won´t see tiff and ry again until I come home. Weird. I´m thinking that I will just fly home directly to Vernal! If I can. I think I can, because Cadin White left on his mission directly from Vernal so I should be able to fly straight in. Because I don´t really wanna have to travel to SLC and then drive 3 hours home. When I get there, I just wanna be there lol.
Well things are going super well, and I am a happy kid. I´ll get my video thing fixed, and send you one next week. love ya!

Chao

Elder Gardner

10-22-12

Hey family!!!

 

This week has been RAINY!!!!!!!!!! All week just lots of rain. Yay for umbrellas!!! Good thing in Argentina, they don`t have paved roads...

so we just slodge around in mud all day :) My pants are realllllly muddy. My shoes are really nice though, they are very waterproof.

we had two confirmations yesterday, and a baptism as well! We have another baptismal service on saturday with Virgilia and Elsa. They are awesome. We had a cool experience with Virgilia this week. We were unsure if she would make it to baptism, and we went to the lesson that we had with her the other day, and she was waiting for us, she said that right before we got there she got a terrible headache and then she was planning to just tell us that she was sick and couldn`t meet with us, then she layed down and just prayed and asked to feel better.

She said only five seconds after the prayer, she felt fine! She was so excited and happy.

That`s nice nicky and danny finally got into their house! and that you get to go visit tiff and ryan. They need some grandma and grandpa time. And I don`t have any plans to be away for next christmas, so I should be home :) Unless I marry an Argintine or something!

 

Well family, I love your guts! Hope all is well, and that you enjoy your time in KC ;)

 

Chao!

 

Elder Gardner

10-15-12

Hey family!!!

So, we did have two baptisms yesterday. Two kids of an inactive member. We helped activate her, and baptized her kids. Yay! We have at least 1 or two more planned for this month.
I had one of the most spiritual lessons of my missions on friday. It was awesome. Hopefully he can make it to baptism. We have a combined baptismal service on the 18 of november with the whole stake. (the 18th of nov SHOULD be my last day here in glew) so that day will be really awesome.
My comp is doing awesome. He is such a great missionary. He is helping me become better and better every day, and we are working really hard (don´t worry dad!)
Thanks for sending me that email from Charly, that was really nice of her to say.
Today was ¨lunes limpieza¨ which means monday cleaning... so we cleaned allllll morning. Yay...... but I cleaned eem good. The pench needed a good gardner deep clean.
Wow! A new stake presidency? We got a new area presidency in the area south america south :) lol. Twins! The president (Elder Arnold) stayed the same, and he called two other elders as his councilors.
That´s exciting that nick and danny are in there house. I had a dream about gracy last night, I miss her and bailey lots! Especially when I see little girls that have 4 years, I see them and how big they are, and I can´t believe that they are the same age, and probably talking the same as them, and stuff. They will be 5 by the time I get back. They were barely talking when I left! Gracy could barely say Jerry Potter.
Well things are doing awesome. We are working hard, and loving it. We did service the other day, and I got BURNED!!! bad... I didn´t wear sunblock and my neck is roasted. It is like border line third degree I think, cause I am getting a couple blisters. And it feels GREAT that I have a collared white shirt and a tie :)
Love ya family!!!

Hasta lunes!
 Elder Gardner