Elder Gardner

Elder Gardner will enter the MTC on Wednesday, June 23rd. We will keep this blog up-dated every week with his letters and pictures. If you would like to write to Elder Gardner, please click on the "write a letter" link on the right hand side for directions and his address. If you don't know much about Mormon Missions read the "about missions" page to learn more; it may help you understand some confusing terms in the letters.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Cinco de Mayo (Office week 18)

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Es una buena oportunidad para comer tacos y escuchar musica mexicana. 

Can you believe it is already May? Where did all the time go? The month started off smoothly; I haven´t had to make too many changes to the finances yet. I just hope things keep running this smoothly. 

On Wednesday we had a special conference with half of the mission. It was a good meeting. President started off by talking very seriously and very strictly about obedience. It seems the mission is starting to have some obedience problems and president put a stop to them. He talked a lot about the temple and the temple that they are renovating in Buenos Aires. They announced the dedication date: September 9. I´ll be long gone. But President told us that always before a temple is dedicated there is an outpouring of temptations and bad things from Satan. So we need to be even more obedient and even more dedicated as we fight and help Buenos Aires get ready to receive the temple. It was a really good and really inspirational talk.

After the obedience talk down, Sister Gulbrandsen announced the Book of Mormon read-a-thon we will be doing. The whole mission received a new Book of Mormon and we will finish reading it before the end of June. While we read we mark any reference to the Savior, any reference to the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end), and any other scripture that builds our testimony. It comes out to nine pages a day, which is just enough so that we have to be focused and use time wisely to find time to read, but not so much that we can´t do it with our already busy schedule. I´ve been reading and pondering upon the greatest of this sacred book. The Book of Mormon truly is a book inspired of God. By reading it and following it´s teachings we can come closer to God than with any other book. I invite everyone to read or reread the Book of Mormon, for it will truly strengthen your understanding and love for our Savior Jesus the Christ.

Our Peruvian friend Miguel keeps going strong. He went to church on Sunday and a ward activity on Thursday. He has been a little bit hesitant to be baptized next Saturday, he thinks it is to soon; but we have been helping him realize that once a person has a testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon there is no reason to wait. If it´s true we need to act upon it, even though we aren´t perfect. If we make a mistake later God will still forgive us. Baptism is not the end but the beginning of the road to heaven. A road that we all stray from at times, but we can always get back on the road through repentance. But without baptism no matter how many times one repents he can not enter into the path. We must enter by the door, and the door is baptism. (see 2 Nephi 31)

Have you all seen the Bible videos on lds.org? They are interesting... a lot different than the normal videos the church does. At first I didn´t like them but now they are growing on me. Especially the last couple ones. The newest one of Christ being baptized is awesome. If you haven´t seen you should go watch them. http://www.lds.org/bible-videos

Well, we just ate some tacos and played some ping pong for cinco de mayo. I got to the championship game of the ping pong tournament then lost. O well. There is always next week. I still have yet to win one of our office ping pong tournaments (and we do one almost every p-day). 

That´s about all the good stories I have for today. I hope everyone has a great week!

Que les vaya bien,

Elder Gardner

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