December 29, 2014

Well Christmas is over thats a relief!!! haha jk I loved it! 

I loved talking to the family and Im super excited to be an UNCLE in July!!! 

We didnt get a ton done on Christmas eve or Christmas but its all good. Christmas eve I went on an exchange with an elder while my comp did a baptismal interview because thats what he does as district leader. It was only for a couple hours and then we switched back. We went to the WML house and brought one of our investigators over His name is Adonus, he is way cool. He is Jarsi the recent converts roomate and we were teaching him with Jarsi but he wasnt as interested as Jarsi so we payed more attention to Jarsi which was bad. But we had dinner with them and just had a fun time. We went caroling to their neighbors and then it started downpouring! A true Florida Christmas eve hahah. It was really good that we invited him, I just felt prompted to invite him and he really needed it. He is struggling with some bad friends right now and he just needs to feel loved. We followed up with him the next day and he started reading in the Book of Mormon again which that is what he was struggling with. We are going to be seeing him more regularly as well. 

We went to a couple members homes on Christmas which was way fun and we got to Skype the family which was nice to see everyone! Made me realize that I miss everyone but not too much haha. 

RUBEN CAME TO CHURCH!!!! Hallelujah!! Now he is on the right track for baptism! We should have a couple Baptisms this next month which will be fun! Ruben should be soon if he comes to church again. Brisby needs to get work off on Sundays to come to church otherwise we have to push his date back. If you could keep him in your prayers so that he can get work off, Same as Jason, he needs to get work off as well. That is honestly the thing that a lot of our investigators are having issues with, If they could get work off and come to church they would be so ready! 

This next week we have a training in tampa area which is about an hour away and we will be getting trained on all aspects of missionary work and it will help me out a lot. It is from Thursday till Saturday, I am super stoked! 

Here are some fun pics of us on Christmas eve at the WML house. Adonus is right by me in the pic. Also you dont see an Ice cream truck this time of year in Utah haha 

Love you all. Talk to you all next year!!! Set some new goals on how many baptisms you want for the next year and work with the missionaries to hit that goal!!!!!

Elder Gardner

Christmas morning Skype

Hello Friends and Family!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! 3 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!

I am super excited to Skype home! How was this week for everyone?!

I got some awesome Christmas cards from some people this week and I am grateful for that! I love Christmas cards! 

Well I will miss out on the Christmas tradition this year and next year but Ill be home sooner than I think. This month has honestly flown by and it has been awesome! I am so grateful for the work that I am doing. It is blessing my life and I can see how it is blessing other peoples lives as well. 

This week was pretty good. We had the Christmas program yesterday in church and you better believe I was in the choir. We sang some fun songs and had a fun time. Some members in the ward actually gave us some chrismas presents which is super nice of them! 

We have been seeing the people we are teaching every day and it has been working wonders! Our friend Ruben who's baptism date was for the 27th actually had to be moved because he isn't coming to church. It is so frustrating because he is the most amazing guy! He has an issue with smoking and drinking but we are helping him quit those. We are going to do the stop smoking 15 step program with him this week I think which will be awesome for me because it will be my first time. 

We got a christmas tree from Dads friend that lives here. We got a ton of rice crispys and things as well. I will be set for a little while haha on the treat part at least. 

I will talk to you guys soon!!!

Love you all!!! 

With the Santa and Mrs Clause

Tadd and his companion with Brother and Sister Cusick

Christmas on the Beach

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Hello family and friends! 

This week was soooooooooo awesome!!! We had our Mission Christmas party this week that was on the beach! We played some ultimate Frisbee on the beach and then had lunch and sang some christmas carols and such. We took a pic of all of us that is up on the mission facebook. Its named Tampa Florida Mission Cusick. Check that out! I took some great pictures of the sunset that I will send as well!

We had our ward Christmas party this saturday. That was soo much fun as well. Tons of breakfast casseroles and guess who got the left overs... yeah we are set for the next couple weeks for breakfast. In our ward there is an senior missionary couple and they actually are the santa and mrs clause for disney! So we got a picture with them that I will send. 

It is getting closer and closer to christmas but let us not forget the real reason for the season of course! Christ is the center of christmas and He is the gift. We should all find time to embrace the gift, discover the gift and SHARE THE GIFT!!! I am so greatful for what Christ has done for me and my life and every one of his brothers and sisters lives. 

We have been setting up and seeing our investigators every day just for like 10 or 15 minutes just to read with them and then every once in a while squeeze in a lesson. It has been really working out! We see Ruben the guy who we are teaching every day and he loves it. He loves it when we come by and he says it makes his day go by so much better. It honestly makes my day go better when I see him as well. His hardest thing is attending church still. We have to push his Baptism back like 1 week or so because we want to make sure he comes to church. Same with another investigator Brisby the Hatian gentleman that we are teaching. 

Me and Elder Holmstead have been working really hard and talking with everyone we talk to! I love teaching lessons to people especially the restoration! Thats good because we teach it literally every single day haha. Im not too big of a fan of street contacting because its awkward but I love meeting referrals! that is why we want to push it soo hard is because if we meet a referral with the member that referred it to us then they already have a fellowshipper who will sit by them in church and help them around. 

It was Jarsi's Bday on friday and so we went out to eat with him and just had a lot of fun! He came to Florida for music and so he played us some songs that he has been making. He is way good!!!

It was an Elders bday in our area that was yesterday and so we are going to chilis to celebrate. 

I really am loving this Gospel! It becomes more and more real to me as I study it each and every day. Joseph Smith is truely a prophet of God and he was called to restore the true and everlasting Gospel on the earth in our time. No one in their right mind would be willing to die or be thrown into jail or be tarred and feathered or be mocked every day for 15+ years just for a book. I testify that Joseph Smith restored Jesus Christs church to us today and we all have a chance to be a part of His true church! Go out and share that truth to your friends! 

Remember that God is a Mormon!!! 

Elder Gardner

 

December

Stands for Florida Tampa Mission or Full Time Missionaries

Elder Holmestead's mom made these cute stockings for both of them for Christmas

December

The first week of December is already gone!

So I had no real P day last week which kinda sucked but its all good. This week went by pretty fast. The days just keep getting faster and faster here. 

We have a mission Christmas party this wednesday and im super pumped for that. We are having it on the beach and its going to be all day. Yes you did read that right CHRISTMAS ON THE BEACH! haha there is always a first for everything. 

Me and my comp had the Idea of setting up chirstmas lights so I sent a pic of what we did with them. It stands for Florida Tampa Mission or Full Time Missionary.

We have this family that we are teaching and we werent sure about them at first because the wife has work every sunday so they wouldnt be able to come to church. And she is a big smoker, she has tried to quit multiple times but has never succeded. But we have been praying for her and guess what! She is pregnant and so that means she is cutting down on her hours and she is quitting smoking because her baby hahah so crazy. The Lord truely does work in mysterious ways. 

We gave a church tour to an investigator that we are teaching and he is really progressing. His name is Ruben. He has a baptism date for the 27th. He has a hard time coming to church because he normally doesnt wake up til about 2 or 3 so we are working with that. But we got told in our District Meeting by our Zone Leaders to set up the expectations with the Investigators that we meet with to see them every day. Just for like 10 or 15 minutes and read with them in the Book of Mormon. We have been doing that and seeing Fenominal success. It has been awesome.

We got a referral from a guy in our ward we are in and we met him a week or 2 ago and set up a baptism date for January 3rd. We are doing the same thing about reading with him as well. He is a black guy from Haiti and has been trying to find God for a while and then we showed up. He loves meeting with us. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and then the next day we came back to read with him and he was saying a guy at his work has been giving him anti material. We cleared all that up with him so we are definitely glad he brought that up or else that would be bad.
We watched the christmas devotional last night at the church! did anyone else? It was great! I wish it could have been longer! Its so crazy its already christmas!!! 

If anyone hasnt seen the video He is the Gift I encourage all of you to watch it. It is amazing. He is truely the meaning of christmas. HE IS THE GIFT! Share the gift to everyone you know!

Also to anyone who dont do missionary work, DO IT! The best way to find people as missionaries is through the members! All the missionaries need to do is shake someones hand. A neighbor or a friend it doesnt matter! We have been getting a lot of success with referrals and the missionaries are here to HELP THE MEMBERS DO MISSIONARY WORK!! That is why we are here. As part of being baptized into the church you have a responsibility to do missionary work. Have the missionaries help you do your work.

Anywho. Love you all.

Elder Gardner

My companion gets so tired at night, when we are doing our nightly planning he falls asleep

Had a flat tire

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! Sorry its a Tadd bit late lol

How was everyones thanksgiving?! Mine was great.

Kind of a crazy week with 2 P days haha yeah... We got an email from the prez that said he is changing the p day to thanksgiving instead of today. So now we have a whole week with no real p day so we will see how it goes. We went golfing on thanksgiving and then went to a couple members homes for dinner, only ate at 2 though. We have an awesome investigator that they cook food every time we come over to teach a lesson haha. We stopped by there and they had a lot of pretty good food. They love bacon so they had bacon with maple sauce and really anything. 

On Tuesday we got a flat tire on the mission car haha. We had to jack up the car and change the spare hah luckily I have done it before but the jack that we had wasnt the best but it did its job. We jacked the car up and took off the tire and then we were about to put on the spare and the jack fell over haha dont worry nothing happened to the break its all good. Yeah it was just one of those days... We took the car and got the tire replaced because there was a screw in it and couldnt repair it. 

We have a guy in our ward that introduced us to his neighbor whose name is Brisby. He is Hatian and speaks creol which is pretty close to french and broken english but its pretty good. We gave him a tour of the church and that was pretty spirit felt. We went in the room and taught a little about baptism and set a baptismal date for the 10th of January! He is so awesome. 

I had my first sort of bible bash yesterday haha. not really though. It was a referral from another ward, this member just wanted us to come and help teach the plan of salvation because he works at the temple and told his friend that everyone gets a second chance to hear the gospel and thats why we do baptisms for the dead. It was a Haitian family and they were pretty strong in the baptist religion. We just set up another time to come back because we werent getting anywhere. But they sent us home with some Haitian food. haha First time trying Haitian food and it was pretty good. Like rice and meat and some beans. Anywho...

This gospel rocks. I know its true. The more and more I study it the more and more truth is revealed to me. I know Joseph Smith saw God the father and His beloved Son Jesus Christ. He restored the full truth on the earth. 

Love you all

-Elder Gardner

Another week down!

This week I hit my month mar on friday!!!! ONE MONTH DOWN, 23 MORE TO GO!!! haha 

This week was awesome actually and it went by pretty fast. It was kinda crappy weather but its all good. Its starting to heat back up again. We just got a cold front. In the morning when we wake up we have to take a 15 second cold shower its a new rule haha if anyone knows me thats one thing I hate! But I'm trying to be exactly obedient because selective obedience brings selective blessings. But it wakes you right up so that works great. The main reason I think is why we are doing it is because it helps us conquer the natural man. The natural man does not want to take cold showers. We overcome the natural man and become closer to God. Our zone leaders suggested that we find something that we hate and do it, overcome it haha. 

We met 2 kids just street contacting the other day and they were way cool. This guy signed to play pro baseball in mexico and moves there in december. The first time we talked to him he said that he wants to be baptized again because he was baptized as a baby. He is sooooo ready for the gospel. We showed him the restoration video and he felt the spirit. He said that he could feel it was true. We set 4 baptismal dates this week so If everything goes well then we could have 4 baptisms next month. 

There isn't a lot of cubans here like everyone said, almost all the hispanics are Puerto Ricans haha but it is so true florida is just a melting pot of people. 

I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting so that was great. I said that I am from Utah, the mormon factory haha my comp says that a lot and its so true. 

We have a dent in our car and we went in to a auto repair shop and there is a lady there that was like oh you're mormons? My sister is mormon and I don't know what they believe. We taught her the restoration real quick and related her to Joseph Smith because she was wondering which church is true as well. She started to get teary eyed and it was awesome. We have a joke that God put the dent in the car so that we could go and meet her haha she is ready for the gospel. 

I love everyone!

Have an amazing week!!!

-Elder Gardner

Hello Everyone!!!! Hows it going?! 

My address is: 

1250 Mason Terrace #201

Davenport, FL 33896

Now no one has an excuse not to write me!

As I type its pouring rain! Like nothing ive ever seen haha. Everyone says that you can literally see a wall of rain coming when its bad and I can tell now what they mean. This week its supposed to be getting pretty chilly. Chilly as in 40 degrees. Everyone was so shocked at church when the bishop said its supposed to be getting into the 40s hahah

This week was awesome! It went by pretty quick unlike last week! This week we had a lot and got a lot done! We met a ton of new people and taught a lot of lessons. Friday I went on my first of many exchange. I went with an elder Johnston from Idaho and that was super fun. Its just nice going with a new face. We street contacted a ton of people and rode bikes all around the area and the next day my gluets were sore (Missionaries dont say butt). hahah jk. But The district leader had to interview our baptism thats why we had the exchange. The next day we had a family week where there were blow up bounceyhouses for kids and little booths and free food and stuff. It was fun but we were talking to people and getting information for lessons haha. later that day we had our baptism!! My first ever baptism! Ill send some pics of that. Jarsi is his name he is so awesome. He loves helping anyone and everyone. We confirmed him on sunday and guess who got to ordain him to be a priest? thats right this guy i mean Elder! lol Now he is in my line of authority which is way cool. I am going to print off my line and have him in that line.

We had district meeting and we are trying to be more bold with investigators. We invite them to be baptized no later than the second lesson. We have noticed improvement. It solidifies it in their head and they think about everything more. We dont have a date or anything set yet for anyone right now but we should within the next week of some more baptisms. 

I attatched pics of our baptism Jarsi and our bishop who baptized him, he reminds me of Baden haha and then I found this on the sidewalk hopefully someone likes that. JESUS LOVES YOU!!

Im sending some pics of my apartment as well.

Love you all hope everyone has a great week!!!

SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO MY MOM WHOS BDAY IS TODAY!!!!! LOVE YOU MOM!!! SHE TURNS 30 TODAY RIGHT? lol

-Elder Gardner

First week in Florida

THis week was probably the longest week of my life! But I learned a
lot! I arrived in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and then we had dinner
at the mission presidents house and a little training. Then we went to
a hotel and spent the night. The next day we went to a local church
and did training all day and yes I got an iPad haha but it's actually
not that bad.
Hours day I got my trainer and then went to our area. It's called
davenport and its me and my comp and another companionship that is
over 1 ward haha definitely not like Utah... We have a car which is
really nice. We are teaching a lot of people but a lot of the
appointments that we think we have aren't home and then we have to
find someone else to teach. We have a baptism next week his name is
jarsi he is 20 and waaaay cool. We spent our whole pday with him hah
played tennis and are playing a board game right now.
We work mainly through the member referrals with finding people to
teach. We do find people but never tract which is nice.
My trainers name is elder holmstead and he is from Lehi UTAH hah he is
really strict and obedient. He has been out about a year and 4 months
and I'm his first son hah I can't really judge right now because I
haven't been with him for that long haha but no I think we will work
well together we have a car but still walk soooo much. We are teaching
a guy that was a baptist and wants more truth. He has a crazy
background. He was a drug dealer and everything and got shot 6 times
because of it and had to reconstruct his face. His testimony of God is
so clear. He knows God is there because he is still alive. We taught
him the restoration and the Book of Mormon. We got him so interested
he asked us where our church is so that he can come haha we will see
how everything goes with him.
It's strange being in church clothes all the time but it's all good. I
got kinda homesick this week but I just need to lose myself. That's my
goal so that time will fly by. Dani leaves next week and it's soooooo
awesome!!
I love you all!! Ill try and send some pics in a couple mins. I hate
typing on an iPad.
-Elder Gardner

Classic MTC photo

My district:  My companion is Elder Luiki the big Poly in the back

My new companion in Davenport Florida, Elder Holmestead (Lehi, Utah)

last week in MTC

Well another week gone by and I leave tomorrow bright and early. I leave at 3:30 to go to the airport and then fly out at about 8. I will get there about 3 or 4. This week has been pretty cold in the mtc but the weather in florida is still in the 70's so good luck to everyone in the freezing cold! haha Im excited but nervous to go. I dont like sitting in class all day though, id rather be out doing the work. Its been really crazy this week learning about the gospel. They shove so much stuff into my brain every day and yet I still will struggle haha It will be good though. By this time tomorrow ill probably be about to land in florida. 

Tuesday we had a devotional with sister Wixom I think from the primary general presidency. It was powerful, she is a great speaker. Yesterday we had a devotional with Wendy Nielson, Ive never heard of her but she was a good speaker as well. In her talk she talked about shindler that was a super rich guy and saved a bunch of jews instead of wasting his money. That was inspiring. He saved a ton of jews and yet he was still saying I could have saved one more, I could have got one more. I hope that will be me as I go out and serve. I could have got one more baptized, I could have saved one more person.
They have actual investigators here that we teach every day usually and every time me and my comp teach her I can feel the warmth of the spirit and then when we leave the room it leaves hah its so cool. We didnt have a lot of time with her, we thought we would invite her to get baptized for the heck of it and she said she definitley wants to but she just needs to know more about the church. If only I had a little longer. Oh well. 

I love you all!! Florida watch out imma commin!!!

-Elder Gardner 

Classic mtc pic and my district with one of our teachers.

MTC

So far so good here in the MTC im still alive!

It has been a long couple of days but everyone says that once you get over the hump then we will be set. Hopefully I am.

Its crazy I only have another week here haha I leave on tuesday mornings.

We woke up and went to the temple today which was pretty good, its hard to stay awake haha expecially when they are trying to shove huge spiritual things down your throats.

My comp is Elder Lauaki and he is a 6 ft 4 tongan going to the same mission. He is from LA and he has a really strong testimony. He is only 18 but looks about 23. He lost both of his parents to cancer and when he shares his testimony he starts crying when he feels the spirit. Now who does that sound like?! He is way cool.

In our room there are 6 elders so 3 companionships hah and yes one snores way bad but its not elder Lauaki like you would think lol. We are all really close and I love them all, I learn so much from all of them Me and elder Lauaki and one other elder are going to florida and then the other 3 are going to Portland Oregon.  

I got sick yesterday morning idk what from but it wasnt fun. I got a blessing from my district or the 6 elders and It wasnt immediate but I was better by lunch haha I got some medicine but I like to think that the blessing worked not the medicine haha.

Other than that Im doing great! Pics are coming sooner or later I just gotta get my camera real quick.

Thanks for all the prayers

Elder Gardner

The Call

Can you believe it I am going on a MISSION!!!
Called to serve in the Tampa, Florida mission
So excited to go and teach about Christ.
I enter the Provo MTC on October 22, 2014