June 29, 2015

Well Family and friends tomorrow is the last week of June and it has flown by! 

This week went by pretty quick but it has probably been the hardest week on the mission so far. We made sure that we are doing what we are supposed to but no one that we talked to were willing to keep commitments. Not saying we didnt have any cool experiences, but we just couldnt get anyone to stick. 

We have a Part Member family that we are working with. The Elders have been working with him for a looong time and he just hasnt been moving along with anything. He wasnt really able to come to church because of issues with work. This past week he burst his ear drum because he is a lifeguard and they had to switch his schedule around so now he can make it to church!!! I think the Lord is slowly working with him! 

In my Patriarchal blessing it says that "You will be lead to doors of people that will listen" I have been able to see that a lot in this area. Especially with tracting. We had about 10 more minutes for the night and so we decided to say a prayer to be lead to one more person who we can talk to. After the prayer I was thinking of a door we could go to and I went with one. We knocked on his door and we were able to say a prayer with him and set up a return appointment. 

I hope everyone has a good week and I hope that the baby comes this week im just sick of waiting!!!! 

Elder Gardner

pics

Daniel, was an investigator in Davenport, he got baptized on Saturday

What we do in the office

June 22, 2015

SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO MY FATHER!!!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! 

ALSO THE SOON TO BE FATHER!! 

This week went by pretty quick I dont know about you guys...

As far as how it went it was pretty tough. We have been working hard to try and get families and really anyone to stick but we havent been able to yet. We have found a guy through tracting named Matt and he has a tattoo of FAMILY across his chest. When he opened the door we knew just what to say haha! He and his fiance are getting married soon and they have little kids I believe. We havent been able to meet the other family members yet but we will soon. 

So weird story. We were praying all day yesterday to find some people that we could teach and hopefully prepare for baptism because thats what we do and all... all day we didnt really find anyone that was willing to change. Then that night we found out that the sisters in our ward are getting Emergency Transferred and we will be getting their investigators... How is that for an answer to a prayer haha. Sorry Sisters. 

Back in Davenport Daniel who we were working with got baptized on Saturday!! Im sad I couldnt be there but its all good all that matters is that he did. 

On to another week! June is flying by!! 

I love you all and hope all the Fathers out there had a good Fathers Day! 

Elder Gardner

New Companion

Elder Holmes

June 15th, 2015

Well I am not in Davenport anymore!! Transfers were on Wednesday, if you follow the facebook page of our mission you would have seen a picture of me and my new companion. 

The new companion is Elder Holmes. He is from Bountiful Utah, there are sooo many kids from Bountiful in this mission. He hasnt been out too much longer than me just 2 months. Im excited to work with him! 

So as far as the new area I am in Tampa. The ward im in is called the New Tampa ward and this past Sunday it was quite the shock. The past area I was in there was a good number of members and a pretty big ward but here it is really small. We are going to have to make the ward a little bit bigger here! 

Me and Elder Holmes are "Office Missionaries". So we help the Mission President with a lot of the office things and the paperwork. We are the vehicle coordinators and are over the cars in the mission. We proselyte just like normal missionaries, but come and work in the office on computers for an hour or 2 a day. So far its good sometimes it can be stressful with lots of things that we need to do but so far that hasn't happened. 

As for the work in the are it has been a good week for finding people. We have spent a lot of time tracting because as a commitment we have to tract about 30 doors a day. This area is more in the city and so it is a lot easier to talk to people because more people are outside. We have been mainly just separating the wheat's from the tares and finding people that have been prepared. 

Cool story. We were going to a potential to follow up with him and he fell through. We were about to leave because Elder Holmes and his last companion tracted the area before. I got the impression that I need to knock on the nieghbors door so we did. She invited us in and then taught her and she said she has been thinking about baptism lately since she hasnt been baptized. Its been crazy to see how the spirit prompts people. It is just a testimony to me that this work that we all are involved in is true. 

More news next week! Love you all!!

My new address is just the mission office:

13510 N 42nd St Tampa, FL 33613

Elder Gardner

pics

Christmas party in June on the beach with the mission

Hawaiian shirts goin on

teaching me how to tie a lava lava

We match

teaching every thing

June 7, 2015

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! 

Well we got the email for transfers and I found out that I am getting transferred!! I have been in the Citrus Ridge ward now for about 7 months and have loved serving in it but I am ready to move on to better things. Wednesday is the day I find out where I am going. 

The Summer party on the beach was really fun!! We had a great time with the whole mission and were able to talk with one another. I love seeing other missionaries and making friends out here!

As for the week it was great! I was expecting to get transferred out of the area so I was saying a lot of goodbyes to some of the investigators and people in the area. 

Daniel has been doing pretty good but I think some doubts and things are getting inside his head. We have been having good lessons with him and he is around good people and members like Jarsi but has been having some second thoughts about baptism. I will get a pic of him tomorrow and send it out, he is a great guy and a good friend! 

Ben we haven't been able to keep in good touch with unfortunately and found out that he moved this past week. Good news though it is still in the ward! We will most likely have to move his baptism back because we haven't been able to keep in touch with him too much. 

Cool story: We were out in the heat of the day and right when I turn to Elder Swallow to say there is no one outside a car pulls up and we talk to them and tell them that we leave our families for 2 years to teach people about Christ. They let us in and turns out they have been looking for a church to go to so they can turn their life over to God. God places his missionaries in the perfect places at the perfect timing! If it was literally a minute later we wouldn't have been able to talk with them! 

We had the last supper with Angel and Nate who we helped move into our apartment complex a little bit ago. We had some good steaks and some Gizzard and Chicken Heart! How is that for interesting food! I am sure going to miss their hospitality and the friendship we have. 

A less active family from Hawaii invited us to dinner and a lesson so we went over there yesterday and had a good time munching and mingling! They gave me a Lava Lava as a departing gift and they taught me how to wear it! I love those guys they are awesome! I am sending some fun pics of that. 

I love this Gospel and the time I have to be the Lords Servant in these Latter Days. It is my testimony that the Lord is at the Helm and in control of everything. He is one prayer away. He loves all of us, he is willing to help us through the hard times and we don't have to go through them alone. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

If you are going to send a letter hold off till next week when I send my new address!! 

Elder Gardner

June 1, 2015

Well June is here already!! May went by way fast. If you want to see time fly by fast just come on a mission and you will see it!

Every week usually has its ups and downs. 

The down side about this week is we are dropping the Dietz family because they just arent progressing anymore. We went by a couple times last week and they have just been falling through and not answering their door anymore. Its sad to see people lose interest when they were soaking things up. Thats the down side about agency!

As for Ben, we have been having troubles contacting him and teaching him more. We ran into him this past week and were thinking of dropping him as well because we havent been able to meet with him too much. He said that he is planning on coming to church. So on Sunday we werent really expecting him to show up BUT HE DID!! Hallelujah! It was great to see him there and in Gospel Principles the lesson was on baptism and he said he is looking forward to getting baptized again. 

Jarsi's friend Daniel is doing amazing as well! We went over on Saturday and had an amazing lesson with him and Jarsi. We went in thinking about teaching one thing and then the spirit took it another direction which is always the better direction! We taught him how to recognize the spirit and emphasized on the Book of Mormon as his key thing to pray about. He said yesterday after the lesson about Baptism that he has been thinking a lot about it and praying about it and he said he is wanting to be baptized!! I love it when people say that haha. I hope I will be able to be here for his baptism. 

The end of the transfer is this week and so there is a good possibility that I will get transferred. The emails come out on Saturday so I will keep you posted on if I go or not! 

Today our mission is getting together at a beach and having a "Christmas party" idk why but it should be fun! I will take lots of pictures! It should be lots of fun. 

I love you all and I love my Father in Heaven who watches over all of us. I know that for a fact and am happy I have come to that knowledge. I am happy I get to bring people to that knowledge.

Elder Gardner