¡Hola! ¿Como estáis?
The title of this email is a reference to September 11, 2001. Never Forget. I completely forgot until I saw the bishop`s tie at church. He had a tie of the twin towers. And then the counslor of the bishop talked to me about how the `negrito` was going to give some speech or something. I try not to laugh whenever he calls President Obama the `negrito.` It`s not ofensive in spanish, don`t worry.
This week has been pretty good. My companion, Elder Palomino, is a capo. It is really nice to work with someone who already has a lot of experience and his really excited about the work. I had been focused on other things the last two transfers and the missionary work was kind of on a hold in this ward. But Elder Palomino and I have been working a lot here and have been having some good success.
This week we got two people to come to church. One is a kid named Bernito that came to church about a month ago but then left his house to go work and we couldn`t find him again. We found him again and he was excited to come to church and is excited to be baptized next Sunday after stake conference. His mom drinks a lot but she is supportive and Bernito wants to go to church to be an expample and help his mom. The other guy who came to church is called Gustavo and he used to go to church two years ago but for some reason stopped. Now he started again and is also excited for his baptism this Sunday after the conference. This will be a busy week.
With the anniversary of 9/11 and with some crazy kidnapping and murder that happened in Argentina we`ve had to answer some questions about why God lets bad things happen. I think we are the only church that can really answer that question. We know that we are here on the earth to be tested so that we can prove ourselves worthy to not only live with God but to inherit all the blessing God has. If the only thing we are going to do after this life is praise God as angels, what is the point of living here with all the pain there is in life? Why wouldn`t a loving God just skip the whole earth-life thing and make us angels to begin with? But there is more in store than just playing harps, there is the promise that as children of God we can become like Him some day. (It`s in Romans somewhere. I forgot the exact scripture) But in order to grow to that point we need to gain the experience of life on earth. In John 17:3 we learn that eternal life is to know God and His son Jesus Christ. We know that Christ came to earth to suffer for our sins and also was tempted and suffered to understand how we feel (see Alma 7:11-13). How, then, can we come to know Christ if we don`t suffer some of the same things he suffered? We read in the book of Moses (or is it in Abraham?) that God cried because of the wickedness of the human race. How, then, can we come to know God if we don`t also have times of sorrow due the wickedness of our fellow man? Part of the whole purpose of being here is to feel pain and sorrow. Let us not complain when we have to experience it! But when we focus our lives of Christ the sorrow is replaced with joy. Elder Palomino said something this week about how on the mission he really came to know God. I have learned the same thing. On the mission I have truely come to know Christ because I have had to experience a small part of the pain and sorrow that He went through as He paid the price of the sins of man. I wish everyone could go on the mission. It truely is the best thing you could ever do.
Well, that`s enough for one week. I hope everyone has a great week. Talk to you next time!
os quiero,
Elder Gardner
The title of this email is a reference to September 11, 2001. Never Forget. I completely forgot until I saw the bishop`s tie at church. He had a tie of the twin towers. And then the counslor of the bishop talked to me about how the `negrito` was going to give some speech or something. I try not to laugh whenever he calls President Obama the `negrito.` It`s not ofensive in spanish, don`t worry.
This week has been pretty good. My companion, Elder Palomino, is a capo. It is really nice to work with someone who already has a lot of experience and his really excited about the work. I had been focused on other things the last two transfers and the missionary work was kind of on a hold in this ward. But Elder Palomino and I have been working a lot here and have been having some good success.
This week we got two people to come to church. One is a kid named Bernito that came to church about a month ago but then left his house to go work and we couldn`t find him again. We found him again and he was excited to come to church and is excited to be baptized next Sunday after stake conference. His mom drinks a lot but she is supportive and Bernito wants to go to church to be an expample and help his mom. The other guy who came to church is called Gustavo and he used to go to church two years ago but for some reason stopped. Now he started again and is also excited for his baptism this Sunday after the conference. This will be a busy week.
With the anniversary of 9/11 and with some crazy kidnapping and murder that happened in Argentina we`ve had to answer some questions about why God lets bad things happen. I think we are the only church that can really answer that question. We know that we are here on the earth to be tested so that we can prove ourselves worthy to not only live with God but to inherit all the blessing God has. If the only thing we are going to do after this life is praise God as angels, what is the point of living here with all the pain there is in life? Why wouldn`t a loving God just skip the whole earth-life thing and make us angels to begin with? But there is more in store than just playing harps, there is the promise that as children of God we can become like Him some day. (It`s in Romans somewhere. I forgot the exact scripture) But in order to grow to that point we need to gain the experience of life on earth. In John 17:3 we learn that eternal life is to know God and His son Jesus Christ. We know that Christ came to earth to suffer for our sins and also was tempted and suffered to understand how we feel (see Alma 7:11-13). How, then, can we come to know Christ if we don`t suffer some of the same things he suffered? We read in the book of Moses (or is it in Abraham?) that God cried because of the wickedness of the human race. How, then, can we come to know God if we don`t also have times of sorrow due the wickedness of our fellow man? Part of the whole purpose of being here is to feel pain and sorrow. Let us not complain when we have to experience it! But when we focus our lives of Christ the sorrow is replaced with joy. Elder Palomino said something this week about how on the mission he really came to know God. I have learned the same thing. On the mission I have truely come to know Christ because I have had to experience a small part of the pain and sorrow that He went through as He paid the price of the sins of man. I wish everyone could go on the mission. It truely is the best thing you could ever do.
Well, that`s enough for one week. I hope everyone has a great week. Talk to you next time!
os quiero,
Elder Gardner
The district from last transfer.
Goodbye Elder Romero.
Hello Elder Palomino.
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