Surprise (Somewhere week ???)

So, first off, you´re probably all wondering why I´m writing on a Saturday instead of on a Monday like normal. Well, you are about to find out...

This week started like any other normal week, on p-day we went shopping to buy ourselves Christmas presents since I didn´t get too many letters or packages (hint, hint). Probably not too surprising that I bought myself a sweet zippo style lighter. On Tuesday we went to work like nomal and as we were walking to a lesson I got a phone call that changed my life. The asistant called me and told me that I have been called to a new area in the mission. That new area is in Virreyes, and also happens to be the mission offices. That´s right, you read that right, I´m an office elder. I am the new coordinador de viviendas (living coordinator). So the asistant told me to get packed and be at the offices at 9 the next morning.

I get here on Wednesday and got right to work. I am replacing an elder that has been here awhile, his name is Elder Unrau. There is also the President´s secretary, Elder Johnson, and his replacement, Elder Nielsen, here in the offices with us. My first day Elder Unrau stated showing me how everything works and what I am supposed to be doing. Basically, I will be in charge of all of the apartments in the mission. I have to find new ones, make the contracts to rent them, deal with the owners, call people to make repairs when things break, make sure rent gets paid, etc. It´s pretty crazy. I authorize the spending of tens of thousands of dollars every month. Wow. Talk about responsability. And it´s a lot of making phone calls every day. I don´t even like making phone calls in english, and I know nothing about contracts and rent and stuff; how am I supposed to do this in Spanish? But that´s ok. One thing I´ve learned in the mission is that I don´t know how to do it. That´s the point. I can´t rely on my own knowledge of what to do. I need to rely on God. I think that´s the reason why callings are always changing in a ward. Once we think we know what we are doing we no longer rely as much on the Lord and He sends in someone new who doesn´t know what he is doing.

I think one of the reasons I got sent here was because in my last interview with the mission president he asked about my family and I mentioned that Dad works for google. So he asked if I knew how to use a computer and I said yes. Kind of funny story: When I got here everyone was talking about dropbox and they were all really surprised that I already knew what it was. And in our first office meeting with President (he was in tierra del fuego until Friday) he asked me if I knew how to use google docs and I said yes. So he put me in charge of setting up a mission account and putting stuff on google docs. I was surprised no one else knew what it was. I guess I know more about computers than I thought.

We also have an area with people to teach and everything. But we start teaching and stuff around 5 or 6 everyday. The ward is amazing. The members just come up and ask us when they can accompany us to a lesson and we teach a lot of lessons in the church building. I´ve never worked in a ward as good as this one. So I´m pretty excited about that part, but we only teach for a few hours a day so I still have no idea who any of the investigators or members are.

We have our p-days on saturdays since none of the apartment businesses and places we deal with are open on weekends. So from now on (until most likely the end of my mission) I will be writing on saturdays. And when you send me a letter or package I will get it immediately (hint, hint). This is all pretty crazy, but I am way excited. I´ll learn a lot of new skills and tools I never thought I´d learn on the mission. I´m kind of wishing I had watched more of ´The Office´ before. Now I understand it a lot better.

Love you all. Hope you have a great New Years. Read the end of Alma 51 and the beggining of Alma 52 to celebrate New Years

Atte.

Elder Gardner

Coordinador de Viviendas

Misión Buenos Aires Norte

oficina:4506-4201/02

fax:4506-4517

-------

I got a hint that something was up when I received the following e-mail on Friday, but I didn't know what until I got Doug's e-mail today.

Dear Gardner Family,

Elder Gardner is now working in a position where he will need to be able to drive here in Argentina. To be able to do this, he will need an international driving permit, which can be obtained from a local AAA office. We are sending you a picture of Elder Gardner that you can print out (2” x 2”) and use to get the international permit. A good place to print off the pictures would be in Kinko´s or Wal-Mart. We are also sending the signed form and a copy of his driver´s license. If you take the form, the picture, and the copy of his driver´s license to AAA, you should be able to get the permit.

Because of mailing delays, we would appreciate if you could to mail the permit as fast as possible so that Elder Gardner can start driving right away. Please let us know when you have sent the permit.

Fed-Ex and DHL would be the fastest carriers to send the license alone. Thank a lot for all your help and support of the missionaries!

Sincerely,

Elder Nielsen

SECRETARIO DEL PRESIDENTE

Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Norte

15-3775-0866

4506-4201

White Christmas (Loma Week 34)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and will have a happy new year.

We had a pretty good Christmas week. On Thursday we had a mission Christmas conference. All of the mission (except for the elders in the south) got together and we played some Christmas games and President gave an awesome Christmas talk. It was a fun day to celebrate the birth of the Lord with all our fellow servants in His work.

This year we worked hard to have a `white Christmas` (that means you have a baptism on Christmas; since you dress in white when you get baptized). We were going to do the baptism on Saturday the 24th, which is when all the Argentines celebrate Christmas, but we decided everyone would be partying and not go to see the baptism. So we had it on Friday the 23rd. The 17 year old boy named Miguel got baptized. It was a really spiritual baptism and his friends from out of town that are members came to watch it. It was a great experience to watch Miguel be born again during the holiday that marks the birth of the Savior. I have pictures I want to send but the computer doesn`t like me today (it never does).

Then on Saturday my companion and I decided to make a ton of sugar cookies to give away to people. So in the morning we made about 200 cookies (considering we have no electrical mixers and only one shelf in the oven it was quite an accomplishment). We proceded to go around and deliver them to members and people, along with other presents. It was pretty fun and we felt good being Santa Clause. But after a while we realized that they didn`t really like the cookies. They don`t eat all that much sugar here, and sugar cookies have a TON of sugar. So the cookies were too sweet for them to handle. Even my comp and I felt a little sick after eating a few since we lost the habit of eating so much sugar. But it`s the thought that counts and they liked the fact that we made cookies from the states for them to try.

Saturday night was the best. Argentina celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. So Saturday we ate dinner with the bishop`s family then had to go home at 9. We went to bed at 10:30 like normal but set the alarm for 11:50 to get up and watch the fireworks. Starting around 11:55 they started setting off a ton of fireworks. Noise ones, in the air display ones, all sorts of them. It was awesome! It kept up for about half an hour. They celebrate Christmas here like we celebrate New Years. We took lots of videos and pictures, but the computer doesn`t like me. Great.

Sunday was pretty good. Christmas day. Miguel got confirmed and recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost (what a good Christmas present!). After church we called home and ate some more food. We ate lots of food the past few days. I love being a missionary and I love Christmas. Probably the best combination ever.

Well, I hope everyone get some sweet presents. I`m sure Shelly is enjoying her new slippers. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, I want to with you a Merry Christmas, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Elder Gardner

I'm dreaming of a (Loma Week 33)

Hello one and all. Here we are, one week away from the holiday that celebrates the birth of our Lord. What a great time of the year!

This week has been intense. Full of running around, teaching the gospel, planning, studying, eating, painting walls, ward activities, and more teaching the gospel. We are pretty tired, as normal. But it feels good being tired when you are working hard.

Today for p-day we went to a mall to eat, look at christmas decorations, and go bowling. So we just got back and don`t have much time before we need to go work again. Pretty much that means I can`t tell you any exciting stories. I can`t think of many anyway.

I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and takes the time to read the first couple chapters of Luke before getting lost in the excitement of presents.

Cherry Samtrism,
Elder Gardner

p.s. I totally forgot the last couple of weeks. Happy Birthday Shelly! Happy anniversary Robby and Jenny! Happy birthday Grace! Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! Happy anniversary Matt and Sabrina! Happy anniversary William and Danielle! I don`t remember if there was anyone else to wish happiness too, if there was I am sorry.

Sacerdocio (Loma Week 32)

Hello once again. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in front of a computer describing the exciting details of life as a missionary in Argentina. But here I am a week later, doing it again.

This was actually a pretty good week. It started out rough. We did divisions on Tuesday with the zone leaders. I went to over to their area for the day. Instead of teaching and preaching the gospel we had to spend the whole day buying food and carrying it back and forth to a members house who was going to make lunch for us during zone conference. It was intense and I was dead tired by the end of the day. And the zone leader who was my area working with Elder Carroll made a huge mess and got a few families mad at us. So I got to spend most of Wednesday asking for forgviness and fixing some problems.

Thursday was zone confrence. The lunch was really good. We had asado. A lot better than the normal three empanadas they usually give us. During zone conference we talked alot about having faith to plan that the investigators are going to go to church and having members lined up to sit with them and talk with them during church. So we made a lot of plans and talked to the bishop and fixed all the problems we were having.

On Friday we did divisions with the other elders in our district. I went to work in their area. It was sweet because they have bikes. I hadn`t ridden a bike in over a year and a half so it was kind of scary at first. But by the end I was riding like a pro. Life is way better when you have bikes intsead of walking all over the place. You can get a lot more done and your legs aren`t as tired. My legs were sore though, I hadn`t worked out my bike muscles in while. Dogs chase you alot more when you are on bikes. But we just kick them and they go away.

On Saturday I got back to my area and we got to work getting people excited to go to church on Sunday. Sunday was a really good day. A less active member we`ve been working with went to church with her nonmember grandson and her neighboor. Miguel, the young man who went to church last week, went to church again. A less active family we have been helping went to church and the dad recieved the aaronic priesthood as he prepares to baptize his son. And the parents of the family with ten children finally brought some of their kids to church and they loved it. And the dad of the family had an interview with the bishop and will recieve the priesthood next week. We were pretty happy. I love it when people go to church and can then recieve more of the blessing God has for them.

That`s about all the crazy adventures for this week. I`m sure there are more coming. Keep tuned and hopefully you will hear some. Talk to you all next week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Gardner

Alright. I`ll admit it. I`m addicted to coke. Alright, not really addicted. But I do like it alot. And seeing as how I had never drinken it in my life before the mission, that is pretty much addicted.

Elder Gardner on a bike

It`s Christmas time.... What do you expect?

Diciembre (Loma Semana 31)

Wow. I can`t believe it is already December. Time has been flying by so fast. It`s crazy. I hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas and is enjoying the cold weather while I am down here suffering in the crazy heat.

So this week was pretty good. I did my first baptismal interview. And I did two of them. They were both with people who have been going to church for a while and just now are able to get baptized. So they already knew everything really well and they passed the interview with flying colors. It was an interesting experience doing the interviews. It was rather spiritual and I got to share with them my testimony and help them be excited for their baptisms.

Another good thing this week was a young man named Miguel. About two months ago I ran into him on the street and talked to him. He seemed really nice and said he had a good friend who lives in capital that is mormon. We wrote down his address but could never find him home, so we gave up after a while. About two weeks ago we got a call from the mission offices and they told us that two sister missionaries in capital had taught Miguel with his mormon friend and he wanted to go to church. So we went to his house and taught him a little and invited him to church and to be baptized on Christmas eve. He accepted and went to church yesterday and made friends with the youth in our ward. He is an awesome 17 year old man.

That`s about all the good stories I have. It was a pretty good week. Thanks for reading my letter and thanks for your prayers on my behalf. I hope everyone has a great week and gets lots of stuff done.

!que Dios les bendiga¡

Elder Gardner

Transfers!!!

Well, I have been transfered. I found out on Friday and on Saturday I left on a plane and landed a few hours later in Ushuia, the farthest south city in the world (not including Artantica). The airport is really close to the shore and you can see that iceberg out in the distance, that is my plane ticket in my hand. It is freezing cold.

Loma Semana 30

Well, I`m not really sure what to say about what happened this week. It was a really good week. We worked hard, taught a lot of people, got some stuff done; but there is nothing amazingly exciting I can think of. We have been teaching the same people as before, some went to church yesterday, some didn`t. On Wednesday we had a training meeting for all the liders in the mission, on Sunday there was a farewell for missionaries who are going home today. A pretty normal week.

So, for those of you who are paying attention, today is transfer day. I sent a picture and a little letter about transfers already. I hope it makes it to you before this letter does. Because everything I said in the other letter is a lie. I have not been transfered. I did not go south. I was pretty much certain I was going to leave; I have been here five transfers already. That`s a long time. 7 months in the same area. So I was positive I was actually leaving this time. But nope, I am still here with Elder Carroll. That means I will be in Loma Hermosa for almost 9 months. Wow. Apparently there is something I still need to learn or do while I am here. I was thinking a lot last night and today about why God has left me here for so long. I decided I need to step up my game a little, and Elder Carroll is the perfect elder to help me do it. So I am glad we are still together and hope to make this the best transfer yet.

Well, that`s about all I have to say today. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of turkey for me. I am thankful for the many blessings I have been given in my life. When upon life`s burdens you are tempest tost, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessing one by one and see, all the many blessings the Lord has given you (I totally forgot how the song ends, sorry).

Love you all!

Elder Gardner

That is a cockroach in an egg shell. Yes, I am that talented.

It was a pretty productive nightly planning session. I was on divisions in the zone leader`s area. My desk would never be that messy, it would drive me crazy.

Me with all four of my junior companions, all of which were with me in Loma Hermosa. I saw the oppurtunity and had to take the picture.

Me, Elder Romero, and Benito (a kid we found and taught together). It was Elder Romero`s farewell so we went to say goodbye.

Milagros (Loma Week 29)

I feel like just yesterday I was talking about how cold it is here and how I wear a scarf and stuff to go work. Well, guess what? It is burning hot! I get home at night and my collar is soaked with sweat. It is really only 75 degrees, but it is like 70 percent humidity. We walk outside and just start sweating, before we even start walking. Got to love it!

The world milagros in spanish means miracles. It is also the name of the little sister of a boy that we baptized a couple months ago. She is deaf, but this week we tried to teach her a little bit. I feel bad for her since her family doesn`t know sign language, so she deosn`t really have any one to talk to. And the little sign language I know from the hours of watching Signing Time with Shelly and Jason doesn`t help since it is different in spanish. Even the alphabet is different. But we tried teaching her with pictures and hand gestures and writing stuff and it seemed to work.

So on Thursday there was a baptism in another ward close by so we took Milagros so she could see what a baptism is like. When we got there we found out that there is a deaf member of the ward who was there with his two granddaughters, all of which knew sign language! They were talking the whole time and it was awesome. We invited her to be baptized in three weeks and she accepted. We were a little nervous about when she came to our ward on Sunday, but when she showed up the young women were really nice and took care of her and there are even two youth who are trying to learn sign langauge, so they could talk a little bit. I think for the first time this young girl really felt like some one cared about her. She seemed really happy as she left church on Sunday.

That`s all the story time I have for today. I hope everyone has a great week and gets lots done.

Love you all,

Elder Gardner

The baptism of Hector and Estela.

Me in front of the Argentine Congress Building.

think that is Alice in Wonderland. She wanted to read the Book of Mormon.

¡Bautismo! (Loma Week 28)

Hello everybody!

Well, this was a great week. It really was. The best part was that Hector and Estela got baptized! They are the parents of the family with ten children in it. Their baptism has truely reminded me of the fact that this truely is the Lord`s work and not mine. I didn`t do a thing to prepare these people for baptism. I got a phone call from the mission offices telling me to go visit them, I visited them, asked them to be baptized, and a month and a half later they were baptized. We invited them to stop smoking and they did it with almost no struggle. Pretty much they are the most prepared people to recieve the gospel I have ever met, and they were already prepared the day I met them. God knew it was their time, so He sent us to find them. I am way excited for them. They are awesome. I tried to send pictures but the computer won`t let me. Sorry. Better luck next week.

Another awesome thing of the week was that an inactive member took us to visit a neighboor family. We taught them a little about Joseph Smith and invited them to church. The member lady said she would pick them up and go to church with them. And she did. Only the son of the family went, but he went with the member lady. That was the first time she`s been to church in almost a year. And now she is really excited to take us to meet more of her friends. And the son got the rest of the family really excited to go to church this next Sunday.

So things are going pretty good here. The work is starting to pick up. We have lots of people to teach and are really busy all day every day. I haven`t been this tired in a long time. My legs are sore and I sleep really well at night. It`s great though. I greatly prefer being busy than not having anything to do all day. I love missionary work and am doing great in Buenos Aires.

Hope everyone has a great week! Talk to you next time!

Nos vemos,

Elder Gardner

Hola (Loma Week 27)

This was a pretty good week. A lot has happened. I`m not even sure what to talk about.

First, I guess I`ll start with my favorite gringo mix up my companion made this week. He was showing his family pictures to a member and some one made some comment about how the parents were holding hands or something. So Elder Carroll said, `they are married, they can do what they want.` But he said it like this, `pueden hacer que les quieren.` So what he said would be something like, `they are married, so they act like they like eachother.` The member thought he was being serious and actually meant to say that. I was just laughing really hard. Afterwards I explained the mix up.

Another good experience: We got a call from the mission offices and they gave us a name and an address of someone to go visit that other elders had talked to. When you get a call like that you have to go and talk to the person within 24 hours, according to the mission rules. The house was on the complete other side of the area, but we took a bus to go talk to him. Either the person we talked to lied to us or the guy didn`t really live there. So we thought to ourselves, why did God want us to come over here? So we went to a lady who got baptized a little bit ago that lives close by. I had pretty much given up on her because she didn`t have much interest in going to church again, and I wouldn`t have gone over there if I hadn`t gotten that call that made me go close by. When we got there she was really happy to see and and told us she had decided to go back to church. And she had changed phone numbers, so we wouldn`t have been able to contact her without going to the house. Pretty much it was one of those small and simple means that God uses all the time.

O yeah! I had my root canal. It wasn`t nearly as bad and painful as I was expecting. It was weird though. I don`t like it when people stick things into my gums and pull out my nerves (I think that`s what he did, I really have no idea). I guess it is kind of like repentance. You have to go through a short painful proccess in order to get rid of the long term pain. My tooth feels a lot better now. That`s good.

There were other good things this week: like trimming a tree, doing divisions, getting the family to church so they can be baptized this saturday, etc. But that`s all I have to say for today. Hope everyone has a great week. Stay tuned next time!

Les amo,

Elder Gardner

Halloween ping-pong.

District picture after district meeting.

That`s me in a tree with a machette. I love Argentina.

Now it`s Elder Carroll`s turn to cut down the branches. The branches were growing into the telephone cables, so we trimmed it a little.

Teeth (Loma Week 26)

Well, remember how a while ago I wrote home about how pain and suffering is part of life? It seems like God wanted to remind me how true that is. One of the teeth that I broke started hurting a few weeks ago. Randomly I would have sharp pain attacks for a few minutes then it would go away. I waited for a while hoping it would go away on its own. When it happened during a lesson my companion would take over for me. But then I got called as a trainer and my companion can`t really just take over the lesson any more. I prayed a lot asking God to help me get through the pain, but it didn`t go away. So I finally humbled myself enough and called the dentist and set up an appointment. Interestingly, after I made the appointment the pain attack never happened again. I think God was just waiting for me to do something about it before He helped me. So Wednesday I went to the dentist and he took an x-ray and decided that my nerves are dying. So he drilled a hole into my tooth (fortunately it`s fake so I didn`t feel a thing) then stuck a needle into my nerves and wiggled it around (I felt that part... a lot. It was painful). After he found what he was looking for he decided I have to have root canal. It will be this Wednesday, and I`m not really looking forward to it.

But anyway, let`s talk about the good news. We had a lot of training meetings with the misison president this week. Apparently the first presidency is really worried about `real growth` in the church. Church attendance has been going down while we`ve been having more baptisms than ever. So they turned to the area president in charge of Argentina to fix the problem. And the area president turned to our mission. La Gran Misión Buenos Aires Norte. So we are making a bunch of big changes in the way we work trying to figure out how to help church attendance grow. It`s a big task, but we are up to the challange and have lots of faith that things will get better.

In our ward we are trying to have the members acompany us to more appointments and teach their friends. We had ten lessons with a member present this week, the most I`ve had my entire mission. So we have been doing pretty good. It seems that it really helps the ward grow when we do that.

My companion, Elder Carroll, is doing really good. He is learning lots of spanish and lots of missionary work. We get along great and work well together, even when I tell him to say things like, ´Gracias por la porquería.` He has helped me step up my game and be more excited for the work. Hopefully we can keep having good success.

Well, that`s all for this week. Hope everyone has a great week and take care of your teeth!

hasta la vista,
Elder Gardner

1. My halloween costume.

2. That`s me on a motorcycle in the mall.

3. Me, Elder Carroll, Elder Daniel, Elder Castro. Part of the district went bowling last p-day.

4. We got lost on the way home and were walking for about an hour looking for the bus stop. But we got this picture out of it. Totally worth it.

Elder Carroll (Loma week 25)

Well, here is the big news. My new companion is Elder Carroll. He is from Mesa, Arizona and arrived in Argentina on Tuesday. As is fairly normal for gringos, he doesn`t understand much that people say, but he can talk pretty well. He has a lot of enthusiasm for the work and is a rather fun kid to be around. It`s been fun to watch him as he gets used to Argentina. Of course, the spanish, but also things like, dogs in the street, people kissing you as a greeting, the food. My favorite part was when we were in a house teaching and the mom of the family started breast feeding her baby. They don`t try to cover themselves up with a blanket or anything here; they just do it. Elder Carroll got rather nervous for a bit. I`ve learned to just ignore it. There are lots of things like that. I`ll try to include some of them in the coming weeks.

Things are rather different now. I got used to being with Latin companions, which means I had almost entirely switched over to spanish in my mind. Now I have to talk english a lot again, which is surprisingly really hard. I also got used to being able to rely that my companion could explain stuff to me if I didn`t understand everything, now I have to understand it or no one does. Also being district leader makes things more interesting. I have a lot less free time in the night because I have to call the elders in my district and see how they are doing and then call the zone leaders and give reports to them. It`s not all that bad, I love all the elders in the district, it just means less time to relax.

As for the missionary work: The father of the family of ten children came to church. The mom slept in the with the kids. We are also helping a family to come back to church so that the dad can baptize his son. They came to church this week and are excited to keep coming. That`s the most exciting part. Things are going pretty good here in The Pretty Bump.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week. Keep up the good work and don`t forget to go to church on Sunday and read the scriptures and pray.

Con amor,

Elder Gardner

1. Me and my `son.` Elder Carroll.

2. I`m not waiting until after thanksgiving. I put up the Christmas decorations already.

Feliz Dia de la Madre (Loma week 24)

Yesterday was mother`s day here. So Happy Mother`s Day to all you moms out there. Love you Mom.

Well, this was an alright week. We didn`t get much done for a couple reasons. 1. my companion got a dear john letter last week and was rather discouraged all week for that. 2. We had to go to do some paperwork on Wednesday. Fortunately they gave me permission to stay in Argentina for another year. They almost kicked my companion out of the country, he has to go to the Columbian embassy within a month to get things straightened out.

So, now I have some big news. Sticking to the customs in the family I have the privilige of announcing a pregnancy. But this time it`s me! I`m going to have a son tomorrow! Alright, before anyone freaks out, let me explain what that means in missionary language. Having a son means that I am going to train, i.e. I am going to have a companion that is brand new, straight from the states. I will be his first companion so I have to train or teach him everything he needs to know about Argentina and the mission. Also, if he is an american, I need to help him learn spanish. I`m pretty excited. I always wanted to train and now I get to. I really hope he is

american because it will be fun to try to teach him spanish.

And the other weird news is that my old companion, Elder Palomino, didn`t go very far away. He went about twenty minutes away. And he is in my district. And since I have also been made the district leader we will have to do divisions, i.e. he will have to come back to our area to be my companion for a day. (that`s twice now I used i.e. in this letter. I hope it means what I think it means...) So I am still here in Loma Hermosa. I`ve already been here six months and now I`ll probably be here for another three since I`m training. That`s a long time in one area. I pretty much know everyone by their first, last, and middle name. But that`s alright. I like it here.

So, I`m a little bit nervous to be a trainer and have more responsiblity. But I`m sure that the Lord will help me; whenever He calls someone to a position He supports them in that calling. It should be a fun transfer. I`ll let you know next week what my companion is like. Hope everyone has a great week. Make sure you serve someone today!

que les vaya bien,

Elder Gardner

Start the country music.

Kind of a long story. Let`s just say it wasn`t me...

This is called asado (the meat on the grill, not the shirtless guy. He`s called Matias). I love it, but meat is expensive and we don`t eat it very often.