ANOTHER WEEK HAS FLOWN BY!!!

Hola a Todos.....


I´m glad to hear that you got my email this week and that there isn`t any computer problems today!  We just finished with District meeting here in Florida and we played some soccer and now I`m trying the computers here in Florida instead of Sarandi Grande to see if it makes a difference with the computer problems.  I love you all and am glad to hear from you each week.

This week has been full of miracles and trials!  Alison continues to progress and it looks like she will be baptized in early November along with Nibia Blanco and Americo.  We had a really cool miracle happen this week... Valeria, an investigator that has listened to the missionaries for more than a year and has already read the entire Book of Mormon and the last two years worth of Liahona (of General Conference), told us today that she doesn`t want to wait anymore to get married and baptized and that she is going to put forth a new and best effort to prepare herself to be baptized!  She has a husband named Juan that also wants to get baptized and 3 little kids under the age of 8.  We are excited to help another family get married and baptized to enjoy the blessings of the gospel as a family.

The only problem this week was that Americo was taken outside of the town to work in the campo and he hasn`t come back all week, and there was a huge festival that lasted all Saturday night and Sunday, which made everyone stay up late and not wake up early to come to church.  We only had 10 members and 1 investigator come, but it was a good moment in which we all felt the spirit and have a goal of strengthening the unity and love in the branch so we can have more success here in Sarandi Grande by working together, the members, leaders and missionaries.

We are so excited for this week and I can`t wait to tell you all next week about the miracles that we are going to see here.  Elder Jackson and I are getting along really well and working hard.  We are still safe, healthy and happy.

Hey Mason -- Congratulations on receiving the priesthood and for starting on you priesthood duties right away.  How was the trek Colin?  It is great to hear that you are loving seminary and having fun in High School.  Mom told me that you are doing really well with memorizing the scriptures.  I have a challenge for you.... I want you to type up one scripture that you memorized in the week and send it to me in your email and I´ll send you one scripture that I have memorized in the week (in Spanish).  Are you up to that challenge?  And for Mason...your challenge is that I want to hear from you one thing that you learned in the scriptures during the week, and I`ll share something that I learned with you.  And for Mom and Dad, I want to challenge you to tell me of an experience in the week that you had to either serve someone or share the gospel with others.  I know that if we take up these challenges that we will all learn more together as a family and be more effective servants of the Lord as a family even if we are in different hemispheres of the Lord.  Let me know if you are up to the challenge and if you have any challenges in return for me.

Love you all.  Hasta la proximo Lunes.

Elder Gardner