HOW'S IT GOING?

Hola todos...


How is it going with everyone?  I am loving the mission so much.  We have seen some great miracles this week and are way excited for the upcoming weeks.  We have a baptism this Saturday.  Candelaria had her baptismal service anounced in Sacrament meeting yesterday and is going to be baptized this Saturday at 6:00.  Please keep her and our other investigators in your prayers and thoughts.  I have been so blessed this week with the help of the Lord in Sarandi Grande.  For example, we had a 16 year old boy come up to us this week in the street and ask us when he could be baptized.  He had been listening to the missionaries before but had to stop because he had to leave town to work for the summer.  He is great and his name is Americo. 

We also have been very blessed in finding some other people to teach through miracles and our piano classes.  The family that we are teaching now with the wife, and two daughters waiting to be baptized by their inactive father came to church this Sunday with the whole family (something that hasn`t happened in nearly 6 months) and the father is preparing himself with the branch president to be worthy and active to baptize his family on October 9th.  We are all very excited and are expecting to have at least 5 baptisms in October.


Elder Bermudez went for another leadership training in Montevideo today and tomorrow and I am currently in the area of San Ramon with Elder Alcerro who is in his second transfer of his mission here.  It`s a little stormy and cold today but the last week was great with the weather.  Elder Bermudez and many of my piano students here are learning really well the piano and Elder Bermudez is beginning to help me with the classes because there are a lot of students to teach at once, so I teach the more advanced and he teaches the beginners.  He is already playing with both hands in the simplified hymnbook that he bought from the distribution center.

This week I have started a new goal to introduce the Book of Mormon in every contact possible.  I`m trying to use the Book of Mormon to answer the questions of the investigators and to be the keystone of the testimony of each person we are teaching.  I was doing exchanges with Elder Whitaker on Thursday(when we switch companions and areas for one day) and we found an old Catholic grandma that began to ask us if we thought that her baptism was valid or not.  We shared Moroni 8 and bore our testimonies and then she said to us that she understood now that a baby doesn`t need to be baptized because a baby doesn`t sin.  She said, Now that I see it written and have read for myself, it makes sense, this has been a question that nobody has been able to answer for many years, thank you.  We then explained that it wasn`t us but the power and truthfulness and clarity of the Book of Mormon that had answered her question and now she told us that she believes that the Book of Mormon is true.

I know that this church is true and that missionary work is for everyone to participate, my challenge for each one of you who reads my letters is to talk with the missionaries and organize a time when you can invite a friend or family member to come to your house and listen to the message of the restored gospel with you from the missionaries, and if you are not a member, the invitation is to listen to what it is that we are trying so hard to share with each of you.  This message has changed my life and given it purpose, and I know that if you listen to it and ask God in prayer to know if it is true for yourself, that God will answer you through the power of the Holy Ghost and you will feel in your heart a peace and happiness that means that these things really are true. That'`s a promise.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that this church is true.

Love,
Elder Gardner