pics

Jamie and Caleb getting married

Baptism of Jamie and Caleb

"Oh how I love Baptisms"

February 22, 2016

Family and friends,

Today is my 16 month mark!! Woot woot!! 

This week was not a whole lot happened other than some people progressing and us finding new people. We had a pretty good week and are looking forward to this weekend for sure. Jamie and Caleb are going to be married and baptized in the same service! Brycen, Jamie's son, didn't come to church yesterday so he can't get baptized this weekend, but most likely next month. Satan has been working really hard on them though so keep praying hard! Jamie had to have surgery to have her gal bladder removed so we taught her 2 times in the hospital this past week. She wasn't feeling good yesterday either so she didn't come to church. We are praying really hard that satan backs off so they can get everything done to be married and baptized this weekend. 

Yesterday at church there was a man, Scott, who walked into church and knew one of the members in our ward from the addiction recovery class. Turns out he has a brother who is a member in Chicago and it sparked his interest and came to church. We don't know much about him yet but he is pretty interested and we set up an appointment with him this week. We are looking forward to teaching another person who is going to progress. 

Exciting news!!! Our ward had a temple trip this past weekend to do baptisms for the dead and Gordon went! He comes out with us all the time after dinner to teach with us and all week he was just so excited to go to the temple. We called him afterwards and he was just overwhelmed by the spirit! He said that was the best experience he has had in his life. By the end of the phone call he was in tears thanking us for bringing him into the church. Baptizing is not the end, getting them to the temple is next! He can't wait to go back to the temple again. THAT is what this work is all about!! 

Much love! Till next week,

Elder Gardner

pics

Big Mike, it took 2 of us to baptize him

Handed out Books of Mormon to people going to the musical

February 15, 2016

Happy Valentines Day family and friends!!! Its exciting! I love you all! 

Valentines day was pretty exciting for us here, we did missionary work believe it or not! I actually gave a talk in sacrament meeting! I talked on repentance, what a great topic for Valentines day John 3:16 "For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only Begotten son!" Its true. God loves us. John 15:13 "Greater LOVE hath no man than this, that man layeth His life down for His friends." He laid His life down for us! True example of Love.

We had a pretty unique week! This week in our area The Book of Mormon musical came and played at a live theatre here so we went every night before and handed out restoration pamphlets to as many people as would take them! A lot of the people thought we were part of the play so they took one haha some handed them back when they realized it was not a joke. During intermissions we hung out and there were people that left because they thought the play was horrible and crude and that is when we would see if we could share the truth with them! Most weren't really interested. After the play got out we had a case of Books of Mormons and we handed them out like candy! We went through 5 or 6 boxes of Books of Mormons in 5 nights. There are 40 in 1 box so you do the math. That is a lot of seeds planted! 

There was also a baptism that the sisters in our ward had. His name is Mike but we call him Big Mike and if you look at the picture you will understand why. The ward mission leader was going to baptize him with our help but he was feeling sick so he couldn't come so I baptized him with the help of Elder Bowden. Teamwork! that was a neat experience for both of us.

Jamie and Caleb came to church again this past week and they are hopefully getting married this week! They need your prayers though because the adversary is working hard doing everything he can to stop them from doing that. They are super solid though for getting baptized this month on the 27th. 

I love being a missionary and being part of Christ's church! Pray for missionary opportunities and I know they will come. Only pray for them if you are willing to act because God will place someone in your path! 

I love you all!

Elder Gardner