GOODBYE PAN DE AZUCAR...

Hola a todos...


So we received the transfers last night and I found out that Elder Thompson will be staying here in Pan de Azucar but that sadly I will be leaving to go to Carrasco (pretty close to the temple!!!) and I have been called to be a Zone Leader.  My new companion will be Elder Butler.  Elder Thompson will be staying with an elder named Elder Calderòn from Nicaragua so that will be a good experience for him.  I`m sad to have to leave but also excited and nervous to be a zone leader.

It was a great ground breaking ceremony and the weather couldn`t have been nicer.  The Stake Presidency came, as well as the Temple President and his wife.  There were a lot of members that came and even a few investigators.  The Branch President read a little bit of the history of the Pan de Azucar branch from its humble beginnings when they met in a small house that used to be used for raising chickens, some of the pioneer members bore their testimonies then the Stake President explained how the chapel is going to be and how it is a new model (the first of it`s type) built in a way that nothing of the building will have to be destroyed to add on more parts as the branch grows and needs more space.  There was even a picture of how it will all look when it is all done and finished, then everyone got to do dig with two golden shovels to break the ground.  It was really good.  We even put together a Pan de Azucar branch choir and sang ¨El Espìritu de Dios¨(the Spirit of God).  It was a good way to end my time here in Pan de Azucar, but I will miss everyone here and especially the awesome branch that is here.

I`m excited for General Conference coming up.  I`m getting close to the end of the Book of Mormon challenge as I start 3 Nefi today.  I`ve learned a lot about the importance of the heart of the people and how it affects everyone in the entire nation, and also the power of one really good and pure heart amoung the most wicked of people.  I definitely have felt a change of heart in me as I have been reading the Book of Mormon this time.

Thanks for everything and I hope that you all are reading your Book of Mormon every day so that you can feel this same change of heart and receive the blessings that the Lord has already promised us if we live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know that this is the true and only church of Christ.  I know that God lives and that He loved us enough to send his only Begotten Son to die for us.  Christ lives and loves us.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that today a prophet of God receives revelation to guide us in these latter days.  Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and we have a wonderful privelage to hear his words, which are the words of God on April 2nd and 3rd.

Love you,
Elder Gardner