IT'S BEEN A GREAT WEEK!

Hola a todos...
Elder Clarke and I are excited to continue working hard together. This last weekend, Matias Carrizo was baptized, it was a ward baptism because he is only 8 years old and his parents are members but it was a great experience because we activated his parents because the bishop asked us to do so and he was baptized. There were 9 nonmembers that came to his baptism. Renae Fancia will be baptized this saturday at 7:00 and another miracle is that Mariana came to church again yesterday, so it looks like there is still some hope for her baptism in the next few weeks. Sadly, none of our other investigators came to church yesterday.

Elder Gold is from Utah and his ¨oro¨ (greenie) is named Elder Brione, from Lima, Peru.  They are both great missionaries and are working hard with a lot of faith. Sadly, I heard that the family from Sarandi Grande will most likely not be getting sealed while I`m in Uruguay because the father has started work on sundays and does not come consistently to church now...  But I`m writing them and encouraging them to get sealed as soon as they can.
      
What time do you have church there on Sunday now that it`s 2012? That`s wierd that you haven`t heard anything about my flight plans to go home because the other missionaries from my group say that their parents already know the flight schedules and even the plane seat that they have. From what they have told me.... We leave Uruguay wednesday the 22nd at 11:00pm and we will be getting back home about 5:00 or 6:00am on Thursday morning. I`ll call the mission offices to see what happened with getting you the information.
     
Things are going great here in the Hospital ward and we are seeing the attendence to church increase now that the church schedule was changed to 5pm-8pm. It`s been pretty hot here, it got up to 113 degrees this week and it reminded me of Arizona. We are trying to help an incomplete family get baptized, the mom`s name is Fabiana and her two kids are named Jose and Mateo. Mauricio, an inactive member and returned missionary needs to get married to his wife, Fabiana. But while we are waiting for that... Jose and Mateo want to get baptized but they for some reason have not been able to come to church even when they tell us, 30 minutes before church starts that they will come. They are a great family but we don`t know what to do to help them come. We are trying to get them to know other members and be their friends so that they feel more comfortable in coming to church. 

We did a service project for Renae Fancia this last saturday with the youth of the ward, where we cut her really long grass and helped clean up her back yard and patio. She is really excited to be baptized this saturday and we hope to be able to baptize Mariana on the 28th if she accepts  to listen to the lessons again. A returned missionary in our ward told us to give him 2 weeks and he would find us a family to baptize. So the members are helping and wanting to help with missionary work, but Satan is working hard to try to stop it in any way possible.
       
It is a bitter-sweet feeling getting near to the end of my mission. I`m excited to come home and continue on with my life and to see the all the people that I haven`t been able to see for 2 years, especially you mom, dad, Colin, and Mason. But I also don`t want to leave the mission because I love serving 24/7 in the work of the Lord and helping people come unto Christ. But the good news is that the mission doesn`t really end after 2 years, it just barely begins. I will continue to share the gospel after my mission and will apply all that I have learned to help my friends neighbors to come unto Christ and be baptized and to work to make it to the temple.

Love,
Elder Gardner