THE COLD AND RAIN STILL CONTINUES...

Hola a todos...

The rain and wind continues here in Uruguay.... Luckily it was nothing like what hit the east coast. We have seen a lot of miracles in this week with members that are helping their freinds and neighbors to get to know the church and even bringing them to church with their families. A couple (Manuel and Mariel) that we have been teaching for about 3 weeks now came to church for the first time with their 3 year old son (Santiago) and they loved it! They walked to church with their neighbors that are members. They even invited a less active member to come with them and now she is being reactivated. Missionary work is going great here in Belloni. We are going to have 3 baptisms in the ward this saturday... Vanessa and Alison and a 35 year old lady from the other missionaries` area. Between the 4 missionaries we share the ward boundaries. They are all really excited and we are excited to see other investigators progressing with the help and support of the members that live nearby.

The ward is getting excited and we are going to be having a bunch of activities and baptisms coming up in the month of September. Every week we are seeing more and more people in church and more and more members are starting to share the gospel with their freinds and neighbors. The Zone is starting to pick up as well, with 5 expected baptisms this first saturday and more in the future. I have really been able to feel a sincere love and charity towards the people, members and missionaries that I am serving right now. And changes are coming up next week. we`ll find out what will happen sunday night so I`ll let you know on Monday. I hope and don`t expect that Elder Sasselli or I will be changed but the Lord does work in mysterious ways.

Please keep Manuel, Mariel, Vanessa, Alison and the Rubino Benitez family in your prayers. They are our investigators closest to the waters of baptism. Especially for Manuel and Mariel who have to stop smoking and for Vanessa and Alison who have already stopped smoking.

I am out of peanut butter and chocolate chips now. A member just taught me how to make some really good rice pudding that I`m excited to try to make today and I`ll be cutting Elder Sasselli`s hair. Things are going great as usual and I am just enjoying and getting the most out of every second of my mission. I`m also getting really excited for General Conference which is just around the corner in october. 

I have really enjoyed the cute little comments that the little kids in the families that we are teaching make when we watch church movies with them... like, ¨what`s the name of that cow or that horse?¨ or ¨It`s jesus!¨ their was even a 5 year old kid who said ¨It`s Jesus when he was a kid¨ when it showed christ in the temple teaching the men all around him. It`s amazing how much little kids know and can teach us. I know that the church is true and that the Lord loves and cares for us. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Gardner

6 MORE MONTHS LEFT...

Hola a todos...

Thanks for the great emails.  I always love hearing how the family is doing and that`s great that Colin and Mason have their own preach my gospel books now.  Study it and you will truly become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the duty to share it with those around us.

The weather here in Uruguay is really cold... yesterday it was -10 degrees celsius (14 degrees farenheit). and it`s been raining a lot. But yet miraculously, I`m still as happy and healthy as ever.  It should start warming up by the end of this week. On P-days... I write you, do laundry (now a lot easier because our neighbor lets us use her washing machine:), today I cut Elder Burnnett`s hair, I cook lunch and clean the house and write letters. There aren`t many fun things that we can do here in the area because we can`t look like tourists here, and especially here in my area where it is a dangerous place to be robbed.  But we have fun all together (the 4 of us in the house).  They Pronounce elder Sasselli`s name (Saw-sell-E), it doesn`t get changed to ¨sh¨ because it`s an italian name.

Time is just flying by and I can`t beleive that it is already almost september.  Jaqueline Turco was baptized and confirmed.  She is doing well  and it was a great baptismal service, we had a great miracle happen this week.  We talked to an incomplete family that came to the activity last week and started teaching the oldest daughter and her husband last sunday... They told us that we were the 20th pair of missionaries to pass by them and teach them the lessons, and that she (Vanessa) had never gotten baptized because she couldn`t stop smoking... (she also hadn`t prayed to know that the book of mormon is true), but when we went back on wednesday, they told us how it went when they read and prayed and with a big smile on her face they said, ok... When can I get baptized, she has gone 4 days without smoking and came to church yesterday and are already telling everyone that they are going to get baptized on September 3rd. Vanessa and Alison(yes Alison is the name of her husband) are going to be baptized on September 3rd.
  
We are also seeing many miracles with the Level 3 missionary work here in Belloni.  We are in the process of helping the members share the gospel with their friends and family and we are also starting what I call the ¨adopt a family¨ program... where we talk with members to get in touch with our investigators and call them up and invite them to have the next lesson in the home of the members.  We are trying to get to the point where all of our lessons will take place in the home of a member who lives nearby the investigator.  We are really excited to see how it works out this week.
   
Sadly, the zone isn`t doing very well.... out of 9 companionships here in the zone, our companionship was the only one to have a baptism in the month of August. That is really low for the zone here. We are doing everything possible in order to turn that around this week. Please pray for the zone of Maroñas so that we can have more baptisms.
   
I love you and I know that this is the work of the Lord, oh yeah I also was asked by the bishop to speak in sacrament meeting last sunday and it went really well, I used the opportunity to share my testimony of missionary work and explain a little about this great change that we are making in missionary work now.  I challenge you to invite someone over for FHE this week and to help befriend them so that they can have a better chance of getting to know the church.  Christ loves us all and our Heavenly Father loves us enough to allow us to assist him in this great work.  He could do it all himself if he really wanted to, but becuase he wants to share his love with us and he wants to share the joy of missionary work, he allows us, as imperfect as we are, to participate in this great work.  He lives!

Love,
Elder Gardner

LEVEL 3 MISSIONARY WORK!!!

Hola a todos...

I had a great week this week and Elder Sasselli and I are having a great time here together. We had a really great zone conference with President and Hermana Da Silva in which we learned a lot about faith and about taking missionary work here in Uruguay to Level 3... Level 1 = missionaries working on their own... Level 2 = members helping missioaries with the work and ... Level 3 = missionaries helping the members to have missionary experiences and invite their friends to church. We have already seen many miracles here in Belloni and have seen many members here bringing friends to church or inviting them to the ward activity that we set up and had last saturday. It turned out well and we had about 40 members there, a good turn out for what our ward missionary leader told us is the usual attendence. Jaqueline Turco is going to be baptized this saturday at 6:00 and both she and we are excited for that. 

Yes, here in Uruguay (and in parts of Argentina) the ¨ll¨ is pronounced as if it were ¨sh¨. That`s just how they talk down here in Uruguay. They don`t really speak spanish, they speak what is called Castellano. which is pretty much exactly the same but with a little different pronunciation.

Thanks for everything and I want to let you know that I love you all so very much and am enjoying every second of my mission and learning more than I ever expected to learn. Today for lunch I made the four of us that live together sloppy joes and everyone said that they were really good. I guess my cooking skills are improving a little bit. Keep being a light to the world, love you. Study Preach my Gospel as a family, I know that you will be very blessed if you do and that the Lord will bless you with more opportunities to share the gospel with others.

Love,

 Elder Gardner

ANOTHER WEEK IN BELLONI...

Hola a todos...

Thanks for the great emails and letters.  I`m glad to hear about all the amazing miracles and blessings that you are all receiving in your lives.  I did get the last package that you sent and thanks for the photos and peanut butter!!  That is great to hear that story about the family that got baptized with the help of Dayton`s video.  I know that the Lord works miracles to bring his children unto him so that they can enjoy the blessings of the gospel and the first great step in that is baptism.  We are way excited for the baptism of Jaqueline Turco on the 20th of August.  She is really excited and we are now teaching her uncle who is interested but a little scared to commit himself to a baptismal date.  That`s also really great that Brad and Robert Graham went through the temple together last week.  I love the temple and am hoping that sometime before the end of my mission that I can go back through here in Uruguay.
   
Our zone is still struggling with baptisms but we have seen a little bit of progress.  We saw an amazing miracle this last week!!!  Elder Sasselli and I were doing contacts talking to the people and trying to find more people to teach and all of a sudden a dog runs up to us with a Book of Mormon in its mouth and drops it right in front of us and then runs off.  I picked up the book and we thought well what are we going to do with a dog-damaged copy of the Book of Mormon?  Then an inactive member came to mind that we hadn`t had time to go by when we told him earlier in the week.  His name is Gaston and he had fallen away from the church a while ago because he had fallen back into drugs.  He came out and told us that he had been praying that day that someone would pass by and invite him to church because he wanted to put his life back in line.  He had just recently separated himself from his wife and his 2 kids due to his drug problem and he had lost his Book of Mormon a while back.  I told him the story of how the dog had brought us the Book of Mormon just 15 minutes ago and he got really excited and was greatful that God had sent us to him in as an answer to his prayers and that God also brought him a Book of Mormon to help him put his life back in order.  The Lord works miracle in the lives of others in mysterious ways (sometimes through a couple of missionaries and a dog...).

We are going to have an activity here in Belloni (Bay-shony that`s the pronunciation) on Saturday and we are excited to see how the members react and if they bring any nonmember friends to the activity.  The mission as a whole is in the process of changing missionary work here in Uruguay... Elder Foster of the seventy challenged us to change missionary work from ¨members helping missionaries in missionary work¨ to ¨missionaries helping members in missionary work¨ . We are now trying to give the members the spotlight and opportunities to share the gospel so that missionary work becomes the missionary work of the ward and the missionaries... not just the work of the full-time missionaries and the members help out with lessons sometimes.  I`m really excited to see this change here in Belloni and in the whole mission and I know that we are going to see many miracles by making this important change here in the work. We are going to start seeing a lot more baptisms and a lot better retention.
   
I know that this is the work of the Lord. Jesus in the Savior of the world and He does Love us perfectly and fully. I am so grateful to be here now in Uruguay in His service 24/7 and I have seen the many changes in myself and in those who I have come to know here in the service of the Lord. The Book of Mormon in true and it testifies of Christ on every page. Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Restoration and today the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is led by Jesus Christ himself and directed through His chosen prophet in these days, Thomas S. Monson. The Church is true and all can receive the fullness of it`s blessings and joy though obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel and by enduring to the end. I love the Lord and I know that He has called me to his service forever. After these two years, I will continue in the service of the Lord for all eternity! I love all and am so very grateful for your efforts to follow Christ and to help others come unto him. Until next week...

Love,
Elder Gardner

WEEK 1 IN BELLONI...

Hola a todos...

This first week here in Belloni has been great and has been a lot better than many of my other whitewashes... Elder Sasselli and I are zone leaders (this is Elder Sasselli`s first time being a zone leader) and we have gotten to know just a small part of our area because it is the biggest area that I have had yet. The ward is really big and we only cover half of the ward boundaries and we share the rest of the ward and the house with two other missionaries.This is my first 4 elder house and I`m really enjoying it, except for it`s really hard to manage our time with one bathroom for 4 elders and one phone for 4 elders to get ready and plan with the members. It is a ward of about 130 active members... but there are over 1,200 members on the ward list, so retention and inactivity seem to be a big problem here.

I heard from Elder Ferguson last night that Daniela Otero was baptized last saturday and we had a present surprise and we had a baptism here in Belloni last saturday as well. Her name is Maria Dupazo and she asked me to baptize and confirm her. Our ward mission leader is a great help here in the ward and accompanies  us to a lot of lessons.

We have another baptism set for the 20th(Jaqueline Turco) and are teaching a family(Flabia, Joaquin, Constanza and Eloisa) that could get baptized on the 27th of August. We have been really blessed in our area and are gainnig the trust of the members here in the ward. What is a little stressful is that the rest of the zone is not doing so good. There are now currently 18 missionaries in my zone and we were the only companionship of the 9 that had a baptism this last week. and it looks like the zone as a whole doesn`t have very many investigators.  I`m now in the same zone as I was when I started the mission in Bella Italia, and I even remember having come here to Belloni one day about a year ago  in an  exchange. I never thought  that it would one day be my area.

I`m excited for this time here with Elder Sasselli. He is from Fresno, California and has been in the mission for about 9 months. He is a great missionary and I know that we are going to have a lot of success together. The other 2 missionaries that live in our house with us are Elder Burnett(from Springfield Utah) and Elder Kleinau(from Florida) We have a lot of fun together but they make me feel so old in the mission becuase they all have only been in the mission for 9 months or less... and I`m coming up on a year and a half.  I`ve already learned a whole lot from them and from my area and am sure that I will learn a lot about following the Spirit in my calling as a zone leader to help my zone get back on top of things and start having baptisms again.  Tomorrow Elder Sasselli and I are going to the mission home for a zone leader meeting and it will be fun to see all my zone leader friends their.

Thanks for all that you are doing... Keep up the work and always remember that the Lord loves you and gave his life for you and me. I love my Savior and I know that He lives and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is his true and restored church upon the earth today. The Spirit will guide us when we search for his guidance and are living worthily. The book of Mormon is true, READ IT EVERYDAY and it will change your life!!!

Love,

Elder Gardner