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.