HOLA!

Hola todos!!!

I`ve officially finished my first transfer in the mission and we are excited because we get to work together for at least one more transfer in Bella Italia, but this transfer Elder Jimenez has been called to be the district leader here.

We are way excited for this Saturday when we have 7 people that we are working with to baptize on the 5th for the ¨Sabado Blanco¨. Yes Dad, it would be great if you could put these names of some of our investigators in the temple on Friday: Robert, Jenny, Luiz, Roxana, Richard, Marina, Marta, Walter, Jose Luiz, Susana, Lucia, Jorge Neto, Antonio, Jesus, the Rodriguez family, and Joanna. Gracias! For this Saturday we are working with Robert, Jenny, Luiz, Roxana, Richard, Walter, and Antonio are the investigators that have baptismal dates right now, and we have 5 of them that are really excited for their baptism and are looking forward with anticipation, but the others need a little more help to get excited for this oh so important step in their lives.

We have received the hot choclolate package and the photos. I`m ok with celebrating my real birthday (but if anyone wants to send me a package for my half birthday they are more than welcome to do so ;).

This week has been amazing we have seen so many miracles in each day! It`s pretty cold here now and it is raining a lot. It rained on Sunday and we had to work hard to get our investigators to come to the chapel for sacrament meeting. The ward is usually about 90 people in the chapel on Sunday, but due to the rain... there were only 30 members in the chapel, but we managed to get 7 of our investigators to go to sacrament meeting. (We were joking with the members that there were almost more investigators than members there on Sunday).

I`m officially not a greenie (¨oro¨ is what they call it here in Uruguay) and my companion, Elder Jimenez, is now the district leader. We are doing great and learning how to work together really well and are seeing much success from the efforts we have been putting forth. We are working with a woman named Marina in our area and she is really progressing well and has become a great friend of the missionaries, but she needs to get married before we can baptize her, and the "husband" doesn`t want to do it right now. We are praying for her and her husband and would appreciate the help of your prayers as well.

Thanks for all of your love and support (and especially the hot chocolate!!!) Sometimes it can be hard when it`s pouring rain outside and it`s really cold, but I know that the Lord is protecting us and guiding us here in Uruguay and we can feel the support of all of your prayers... Thank you so much. I know that the Lord is guiding His work here and all around the world.

Love you Mom, I am safe and healthy and am in safe hands. Thanks for your love to both of your sons here in Bella Italia and for all the packages and letters. I love you and you are always in my prayers. I miss our temple trips together and hope that your back and health are doing fine.

Love you Dad, Thanks for your talks and supportive words and for your great example to me and in helping me, along with mom, to prepare myself for the mission. I love you and pray for you each day. I miss the temple a little and hope I get a chance to go soon.

Love you Colin, how`s football going? I hope you are working on those muscles because Elder Jimenez is teaching me some kung fu moves to use so I can still beat you up when I come home. Love you and hope you are having fun and being a good helper and example for the family. Have you gone to the temple yet?

Love you Mason, Thanks for the e-mails and I hope you get the chance to go swimming a lot this summer while I`m all bundled up escaping the cold and rain. The dogs here say hi and there is one dog here that looks a lot like Buddy and is really cute. I`ll try to send you a picture. Keep being a great help to mom and dad, and I hope you are preparing yourself to receive the priesthood real soon in the end of September. Love you.

Love you all and hope you are seeing the blessings of my service to the Lord and His children here in Uruguay in your own lives as well. Keep reading the Book of Mormon and saying your prayers.

Love,
Elder Gardner

MY FIRST TRANSFER IS DRAWING TO AN END

Hola todos!!!

Things are going great here in Bella Italia in Montevideo, Uruguay!!! We have 13 investigators that we are working with right now trying to prepare them to accept a baptismal date. We have seen miracles this week. We had our first investigators attend sacrament meeting this week!!! Some sad news this week is that Susana, the woman that was so great and progressing so well, first got a new job that makes her work all day everyday and second came out of her house one day and told us that she didn`t want to continue listening to us I think for reasons and pressures of her husband who doesn`t like Mormons (only because he doesn`t know what we do or who we are...).

But the Lord blessed us with a miracle yesterday! We were in church with Jenny and her kids, and some man that we had never seen or talked to before walked in and introduced himself. He had listened to the missionaries before and went to church for a month straight, but then due to pressures from his family he stopped listening and stopped going to church, but then decided to return and try listening again... and now he is our first investigator with a baptismal date and is going to be baptized on June 5th. We also hope to prepare more investigators to be baptized on the 5th as well because it`s ¨White Saturday¨ when all the baptisms from our zone are going to take place.

The Lord is helping me and teaching me great things everyday. I am learning so much more from the Book of Mormon this time reading through it (because I`m taking the challenge of Pte. Da Silva to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and mark every time the name of the Savior is used and every time the Savior speaks, then I am going to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ). I extend this challenge to all that will take it and be blessed by it.

I know that the Lord loves each and every one of us individually and listens and answers our prayers. I love you all and will keep you updated on what`s up with me here in Uruguay.

Elder Gardner

P.S. Thanks for the emails and prayers, you are always in my prayers.

A LETTER FROM ELDER JIMENEZ...

Hola Hermana,

This week was marvelous and great! We have an anouncement for you, we have a baptism for the last week of this transfer, on June 5th. This week we worked really hard and have seen the results of our efforts. Elder Gardner and I wanted to pass the limits this week. We had goals to do 200 contacts and we did it and more, we feel very happy. Also we have improved our lessons and contacts, and have found people who are very good to teach. All of this is because of a reason of being obedient and a result of our success. Without any doubts, Heavenly Father has seen our effort, there have been moments in which we have felt a little sad because the people reject us, while walking in the rain, we sang a song and felt joy and a motivation to continue pushing ourselves forward. We have this week, 13 investigators that we want to help prepare them for baptism, and we have placed goals, principally for us as disciples of Christ, and think that Heavenly Father will follow through with his promise in D&C 84:88.

Sister Gardner, you have a marvelous son, for me it`s real honor to work with him. He loves the people a lot, and his faith is very great, he makes me feel good. Always he is smiling:) I know that Heavenly Father will help him throughout his mission. This week he finished his first month in Uruguay and we celebrated with Ice Cream. It was a good dinner... I will finish my first year in the mission on June 9th. I feel happy that Heavenly Father has helped me and I have seen his hand in my life. For this desire I have to serve Him and do his will in this work.

We are almost done with our first transfer together and the time is flying by, the next transfer starts on June 1st. I think that we are going to be together for at least one more transfer. I am sincere and I believe that I am going to miss him a lot when we have to be separated, we are very united and always we feel the sincere desire to work hard in the work of the Lord.

Sister Gardner, once more I would like to thank you for your love and support, you are a very special family for me. Give Russell a hug for me and also to Colin and Mason. I hope that Colin will become the best football player in the world, and Mason I hope you can learn spanish really well in order to talk with me someday. Sister Gardner, Heavenly Father will bless you for ever, and I know that your prayers and attention for Elder Gardner and I are heard. My birthday is......... the 23rd of July. I`m going to turn 22, so I guess that makes me the oldest son.

The Gardner family, I feel humbly grateful for the sacrifice of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I know that he lives, and I know that this is His work, and that our own lives were seen by him. He understands our afflictions and pains and for this reason that I know that Heavenly Father loves us and desires that the knowledge of the restored gospel can come to all of His children. Thanks for being a family that is an example for me and that helps me. I desire that the Father always blesses you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Jimenez

OFFICIALLY IN URUGUAY 1 MONTH ON THURSDAY!

Hola todos...

Everything is going great here in Uruguay. We had a great week in which we found some really good investigators that we are working with right now. Yes mom, Elder Jimenez called his family, both his mom and dad on Mother's Day. Thanks for all the support that you give us both.

We had stake conference here this week and it was the hardest week yet to get our investigators to come to church because it was Mother`s Day (they changed it by a week because of their election which was on the real Mother`s Day), and it was in the stake center which is quite a ways for people who don`t have cars, which is just about everyone here.

We have two really good investigators right now, Lucia and Susana. Lucia is our first investigator who actually read and prayed about our message, and guess what... she knows it`s true, What a surprise, hahaha... She has one little daughter and a husband who isn`t so sure that our message is true, because he hasn`t prayed about it yet.

The other is Susana and we met her when we offered to do some service to help her clean up her yard. She was very grateful and invited us in to talk about how we could help her and 1 hour later she had asked us so many questions about how our church works and what we do and why we were here as missionaries. She is very interested and we took her to the chapel to give her a tour of the inside and explain what we do in each room. When we were showing her the baptismal font, she asked what do I have to do to become a member of your church... GOLDEN!!! She is very excited and is coming to church next week and wants to start participating in all the activities already in Relief Society. We need to find out if she is married, we think so but need to be sure, in order to place a baptismal date with her, but I feel that she is going to be my first baptism here in the mission!

I`m so excited and have been praying a whole lot to be able to help our investigators get their own testimonies and to find more people to teach and bring unto Christ. We met our goal of 200 contacts this week and I`m excited to expand our other goals that we have in place.

Thanks for all the support and help from you all. I love you very much and know that this church is truly restored by the authority of God through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that God loves each and everyone of you individually and personally. There`s much work for me to do and sadly only a little bit of time. I pray for you always and know that I`m safe in the hands of the Lord here (and a great trainer).

Until next week,

Elder Gardner

HOLA TODAS!

Hola todos!

I`m doing great and had a great time talking with the family yesterday on the phone. It was really good to hear your voices. There`s not much to report differently from last time, except that I got my first haircut in Uruguay. And I spent most of my Pday washing our clothes by hand.

Things are really good and we have seen miracles lately. We had a zone conference and have regained our enthusiasm and flame to serve with everything we have again. We have been working on improving our contacts and one thing in particular that we do is always introduce the Book of Mormon and the Restoration in every contact, and we have noticed that lots more people are willing to have us explain more and we even had one man named Aràujo that stopped us right before we were going to ask if we could come over and share more with him, and he handed us his telephone number and said call me, I`m really interested in what you said and I`m curious to know if there really is a restored gospel. The Lord places those who are prepared in our path and when we open our mouths and talk with all of our Hermanos in the street then the Lord blesses us with people to help and teach.

I love you all and hope that you are all reading the Book of Mormon and taking the challenge of President Da Silva to read the entire Book of Mormon and mark every time the name of the Lord is mentioned and every time the Savior speaks, then pray to know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that it is and that each and everyone of us is another testament as well, because I know as well as I am alive that Jesus is the Christ and that the Book of Mormon is a testament of Him and that His gospel and church has been restored to the earth today.

I love you all and I would love to hear from you all, I don`t have very many addresses to send letters to friends and family so if you want to hear from me you are going to have to send me (and Elder Jimenez, my companion) a letter with your address because we want to write to more people but can`t at the moment.

Love you all, always remember who you are and never forget to smile.

Elder Gardner

P.S. Elder Jimenez has something to say...

Sister Gardner,

For me as well it was really good to hear you on the phone on Mother`s day. I want you to know that the love of parents for their children is a strength that your son is going to have for the rest of his life. I say this for a reason, It`s not my case to have a family that cares and worries for me. I have come to feel that a family that cares for me, I can say that you have made me feel like you are a mother to me and that I am a son of your family too. I would like to say many things to my mother, but I never could do this. I don`t understand English perfectly but I can hear the words of your Son on our end of the phone, and I know that you are a mother that is very special, thanks Sister Gardner.

Thanks for the way that you have helped me with your words because they are sufficient to help me. I can feel the love of the Savior in my life and I recognize how he has directed my life. I love this work! I hope to gain even of the trust of the Lord, that Elder Gardner and I can really be intruments in the Lord`s hands. I want to thank you infinitely for your kindness and sincerely as a representative of Jesus Christ, that our Heavenly Father has blessed us all that he is always our light and guide and we all have an eternal family. You are always in my prayers, I only desire that you can have confidence and trust in me to have the power to help your son to be prepared to do all things required of him for the rest of his mission. Sister Gardner once again, thanks you very much.

Elder Jimenez.

PHONE CALL REVIEW...

We had a great hour on the phone with Jeremy today. He is doing great and loving the work. He did say he could use more mail (hint-hint). I think every missionary can use more mail, no matter how much they are getting. If you have the time please write at his e-mail address or his mission home address posted in the right-hand margin of this blog. His companion, Elder Jimenez, would also love to hear from any of you that have time to write. He does not have any support from his family in Panama, as he is the only member of his entire family. He has really appreciated the e-mails we have sent him so far. They have their mail delivered to them once a week from the mission home or they can print out your e-mails on their P-day.

They are teaching 2 families right now and a couple of other investigators. When he entered his new area 2 weeks ago they didn’t have any investigators and had to start from scratch so they are accomplishing great things.

He shared with us that the area he is in is kind of the ghetto of Montevideo. They feel safe in the day but have to stay in after dark. There is no trash pickup there. They put their trash on the sidewalks or in the occasional dumpster and then someone comes around once a week and burns the trash (ugh!) He is washing his clothes with a washboard in the sink and trying to figure out how to take care of his chicken, Shakira. There are tons of stray dogs that roam around everywhere, but he hasn’t had any trouble with any of them yet. He said they have small grocery stores that carry a lot of foods that we have here at home – i.e., Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Pringles. The only thing he said they don't have there is good chocolate!

He said they have lunch at members’ homes every day. Lunch is the main meal of the day there. He said they eat a lot of rice and pasta and he hasn’t had anything too unusual yet. We did notice a charge to McDonald’s this week on his debit card – you can always count on finding the Golden Arches no matter where you are in the world.



He is getting the opportunity to play the piano a lot – it sounds like every Sunday (which he LOVES). He plays for their meetings and then he is asked to play afterwards for many of the members. He took a lot of his church sheet music with him and it sounds like it is being put to good use.



He said they can walk from one end of their area to the other in about 45 minutes. They have one ward in their area and they have about 90 active members who attend weekly. They have a retention problem that they are trying to work on right now to get some of the inactive members back to church. Not very many people have cars there – everyone walks (as well as the missionaries). Not having cars makes it difficult for some members to make it to church. Jeremy said he is learning the bus system and take the bus for longer trips, but walk most of the time.

That is a summary of our phone call. It was so good to hear his voice -- He sounds happy and healthy. We also had the chance to speak to his companion, Elder Jimenez. He is working on his English and did pretty well.

Thanks for all your support of Elder Gardner!

Elder Gardner Reporting In...

Hola familia...

Hey you have to call me on Sunday the 9th, around noon your time, which I believe is 4 p.m. my time. You actually can call any time from 3 to 5 p.m. my time. Whatever works best for you. I`m excited to get to hear from you all. I received your package last week and the watch is working great! Gracias!

Things are going well here in Bella Italia and we are getting to know the area a little better. We haven`t had any baptisms yet, but we are going to have 2 real soon who are members who just turned 8. We also have one investigator with the baptismal date of the 15th and another that we are going to place a date with tomorrow. We have been so blessed here. We have 3 really good families that we are teaching and all of them are married and seem to be really interested. Our greatest challenge is trying to get them to read and pray about our message. We are working really hard here and have seen some great miracles... But Shakira won`t lay any eggs, I don`t know why.

One miracle that we saw this week was on monday after lunch and we were offered a ride home by the members because it was a really long to walk and we had a lot of stuff to carry from the package that you sent and we received a blender. The car died and wouldn`t start for some reason. We tried pushing it to help start it up. We tried looking under the hood, but we couldn`t see any problem. Then I remembered... We haven`t prayed yet! We got in the car and said a prayer to help the car start or help us be safe in walking home. We tried again and the CAR STARTED!!! I know that God hears and answers our prayers. We were extremely grateful that we didn`t have to walk the nearly 4 miles back home.

I love you all very much and sadly don`t have much time to write today, but we`ll talk on Sunday!!! Elder Jimenez was very excited to receive your e-mails -- Thanks! He said that he`s going to write you a letter and is glad to have a family to talk to because his family doesn`t write him. I know that the church is true and that the Lord loves you.

Elder Gardner

P.S. Elder Jimenez says: Thanks for your prayers and for having such a great son and I hope to help him much. He is going to become a great instrument in the Lord`s hands. You are a special family and I hope some day I can meet you in person. Love you.