I'm now 21! Fun week!

Family and friends,

I want to thank you for your birthday wishes on my behalf! I can't believe I'm 21 now! We thought about what things I am legally allowed to do now, and all the things are either against Missionary rules or our Commandments. Well, glad to know as you get older, you are allowed to sin more, as Elder Mitchell says. Puts a new perspective on things.

So! Monday was our Zone Pday, where all the Missionaries gathered together. We arrived and a woman came up to me and said she had some surprises. I knew someone was coming but didn't know what the surprises were. So she shows me a video of my mom and family, then took a photo with me and the Sisters there. Then I was shown our cupcakes and got a video of myself saying thanks. Then everyone else showed up and we had a ton of fun chatting, seeing each other again, 

I gave two Sisters my last planner and challenged them to make pictures for them. So they did, and so I got a photo with both of them and the planner pictures they made. Also got a photo with Sister Shell, a visa waiter who is leaving soon.

Tuesday we had a good day, and taught several people at our ASL class! Wednesday we had a miracle. Went to a Less active member's home and explained, once again, about the importance of going to church. I felt prompted to show him a General Conference video about your 4 seconds (sat afternoon session) on Earth, and as I went to do that, his friend shows up. So it became a member present as we watched the video and Testified of the importance of following the commandments.

Thursday we went to Court and tried to resolve Elder Oleson's case. We met a YSA girl there who was caught speeding. So we spent 3 hours there. Then visited some people, then correlation. I love the new Branch Mission Leader, Brother Mealey. He's very sarcastic but has a sincere heart. Friday was District Meeting, possibly my last one. We went to the Galleria and tried to mall sign. The mall is very long, feels like forever walking back and forth! Then went to a deaf social. We saw an inactive member there, awkward!

Saturday morning we went to a baptism. So background, E. Erickson contacted a man and gave the information to the Sisters. They taught him, he accepted baptism, wanted E. E to baptize him. SO, we went to their ward building and he baptized him. Then got an oil change, then did family history. I LOVE FAMILY HISTORY! It's so much fun finding names and connecting my tree!

Sunday was a good day at church, felt the spirit. Went to Galveston again, tried to contact the referral, but not home. Oh well. :(

Anyway, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gardner

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Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!
Family and friends,

I hope ya'll have a happy Easter and can enjoy and remember our Savior Jesus Christ and what He's done for us to help us live with Him and our Heavenly Father again!

We have the opportunity now as Missionaries to read the full Book of Mormon and highlight passages which talk about how we can use the Atonement. It's hard for me to read a book and progress well without getting distracted. However, I have been able to keep up with my reading and have been doing a good job with the Book of Mormon so far. I do hope to learn a lot as I find passages that relate to how to USE the Atonement.

As far as the Branch and work is going, we are trying to help our investigators get to church through whatever means we can figure out. We tried to get a member involved to help our investigator's van get fixed, but he suggested we go to a local shop. So now we need to encourage her to use family or friends to help get funds so she can become more independent.

We finally received a new Branch Mission Leader. The Mealey family. They are fantastic and are trying so hard to learn sign language as fast as possible. He is amazing, has sarcasm and humor but knows when to be serious.

Friday we went to the Temple to do Baptisms for the dead with our Branch. It was fantastic seeing Brother Speckhard again, as well as watching members of our Branch help do family names for us. I've been doing a lot of family history and have been trying to fix up my tree as well as do the ordinances for those whom haven't been done yet.

Unfortunately, a member passed away last week on his birthday, so we attended a birthday party funeral for him.

Saturday was exchanges, as Elder Mitchell had the awesome opportunity to go team interpret with Brother Tuck at a Stake Youth activity way far up north where Book of Mormon characters come to life. Then we had dinner with him when they came back down, and had a fun Gospel discussion with them.

Sunday was good, talked about and learned more about Easter. I taught Sunday School, Elder Erickson taught Priesthood. Sacrament meeting was good. Then Skidmores for Easter Dinner.

This week will be good as we continue to work hard and bring souls unto Christ.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gardner

Transfers, interviews, Temple and my birthday coming up?

Family and friends,

Last week we said goodbye to some members. I will miss them! Then had exchanges and Elder Erickson went South and Oleson north. The following day we visited a member, a deaf and blind man, who went to the hospital again. He was not doing well. In fact, he passed away just after his Birthday. :(


Thursday after we planned, President called and says he wants Elder Erickson to go South by Saturday. An emergency transfer, halfway through this transfer! This is on purpose and I will explain more as my time comes to an end.

The weekend was an exchange and Temple trip. Then we ate Dinner with the richest member in our Branch.

Following that we did family history.

Sunday we went to church. Our Stake President came to speak with us, as it was Branch Conference. It was good. I also spoke with many of the members to make sure everyone will still be here and not on vacation in June, when my family picks me up. We then went to Galveston to try a contact a referral, who wasn't home.

So that was my week. We shall see what happens this week!

Oh, and yes I hit my 22 month mark this week. And apparently my birthday is next week? I've been on a Mission too long and don't remember that stuff easily. But I will when I get presetns :D haha

Anyway, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gardner

General Conference Weekend!

Family and friends,

This past week was General Conference weekend! Prior to that, we had some interesting experiences. First, after emailing home we went to the stake center and sister king and shell was there. We chatted for a while when our phone buzzed in a text. Turns out one of our progressing investigators was sent the hospital because of a heart problem and wouldn't be released until 3 weeks later. Saddened by the problems Satan throws at our Deaf people we try to help, I started to lose hope. Sister King said to have faith, and said we should pray. So the four of us knelt down and prayed for her to recover fast. Last that night Elder Oleson suggested we Fast for her the next day. We texted the zone and asked them to pray as well. Just a few days later we got a text that she was released from the hospital and was recovering! We were so happy that it worked!

We had some good lessons this past week, most of them focused on General Conference and encouraging members and investigators to watch it. Thursday night before heading home we tried a referral that I've lost some hope with, but he was home and we taught the Restoration lesson on his doorstep and he accepted a book of mormon! Friday we had zone meeting. In the past, the Saturday morning before General Conference we would go to iHOP, however we decided to go to Red Robin instead Friday afternoon. Then after checking facebook, we found a Deaf social and went to a mall. The mall was huge and a ton of worldly distractions were present. I avoided them as much as I could! We ended up seeing a group of HS girls who were taking ASL classes. Awkward... we spend about 20-30 minutes introducing ourselves and then decided to just leave, haha.

General Conference weekend was fun! But sadly, we missed half of it! Wouldn't you know, Saturday morning the computers and projectors and everything is setup, when just as it starts, everything goes down. The satellite receiver fails. So the other Ward's tech guy and I frantically resetup everything so it could play in both asl and english. Afternoon session we went to a member's house, but they were late by 40 minutes. Sunday morning we resetup things better, but the one projector died, so we had to depend on ASL only. Afternoon was the best, we got a TV to work. I was very happy I could use the little technology skills I could still remember to help out.

(Priesthood session , the man interpreting the songs was my Deaf MTC teacher!)

That's the past week! I am excited to see what happens this week! The Hausman family is leaving in a few days and won't return to Houston until I leave, so we will say goodbye in about 30 minutes.

As Missionaries we have planners that we use to keep track of schedules and stuff. We put pictures on them for fun, sometimes. So for my last planner, I gave the covers to two Sisters that I'm friends with, trusting that they can use their skills to create a fun surprise for me :)

Anyway, that's all I have! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Gardner

Transfer week, my goals and hopes

Family and friends,

Transfers happened. Elder Mitchel is now North again, and I am with Elder Oleson in the South. I'm probably going to die South, I think.

After transferring Elder Mitchell, we went to an investigators home. He was sent to the Hospital because of sudden sickness and needed emergency help. He's mostly blind and deaf. We gave him a blessing. We had our asl class that night. Guess how many people showed up? 14! Two moms with children, the English Elders whom serve in the area our church is in, and two YSA girls. Also a guy from a ward came as well. It was so exciting to have a full row of chairs filled!

Because I have two transfers left, I have decided to set a goal THIS transfer to baptize four of our investigators who are the most promising. One is a 20 year old girl. She lives near one of our member's homes. She is still in school, I guess had educational problems or something. Her mom doesn't seem to like us, as she doesn't allow us in her home, so we teach her outside. We had a fantastic lesson with her Wednesday. I was trying to help her understand the differences between God's church and other churches. I grabbed out our picture book and showed her Joseph Smith and his first vision. Then she started looking through the pictures and found the Salt Lake City Temple. I told her that's where we can be married and sealed for eternity, never to be separated. She started to become excited. We kept showing her more photos in the book and then she stopped and said he was attracted to the church and wanted to be baptized! So we committed her for April. She accepted!

Another investigator is an older women whom has been interested for a while. We need a man with us to enter her home. Finally Thursday we were able to enter, and teach her the Restoration. She was very interested and wanted to be Baptized! Same with our other investigator, female. Our problem with these investigators is they don't have rides, or their cars are broken down. So we have to figure out what to do to help them get to church.

Saturday became a small mess. We originally planned to have an Elder's Quorum exchange, where the other three Elders go and teach and we do home teaching assignments. However, our EQ President had a rough week and needed the day to do other things. So we still did exchanges, but didn't have many backup plans decided. So we did some home teaching stuff and checked Facebook. I felt bad, because I knew we could have had a more productive day if we planned better. Oh well.

Sunday was good. Taught our ASL class, then I taught Sunday School. Then we had a combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting and learned about registering accounts on LDS.org. Sacrament was good, with Fast and Testimony meeting. Then Skidmore's for Fast Sunday Dinner, as always. Wonderful! It's a tradition to wear aprons there, so Elder Erickson's mom made each of us matching Texas Houston Mission ones, and we got to wear them there.

This week will be great! We will teach our asl class, we have three investigators, with one potential. We have general conference coming up, which I am excited about! I cannot wait to hear the Prophet speak to us again! This will be my last one on my Mission, so sad! But the church is True!

Please pray for the above investigators that their hearts may continue to soften AND that their situation can improve so they can all get to church and be Baptized next month!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gardner.

Blessings of the Lord because of Obedience

Family and Friends,

Since I last emailed, we have had a typical week and a few miracles happen. We have one investigator  whom is interested in church and we have taught her the first two lessons from Preach My Gospel. She is very interested and wants to be baptized next month! We hope she can figure out her ride situation so she can get transportation to church. We went to Chick-fil-a to find this one worker there who is learning sign language and we hope to invite her to attend our class Tuesdays.

We had a fun PDay last week with all the Zone in the Stake Center. We got special permission. It was fun, I got to meet a few new missionaries and chat with old friends. Sister King still knows ASL, impressive!

Thursday and Friday we attended the Temple. Great experiences! Friday Elder Mitchell got his boot off and now can walk in normal shoes. He cannot jump, bike or swim until next month. Which is okay, considering we don't do any of that as ASL Missionaries anyway, haha.

Sunday we met with a Deaf young man who's 17 and a member of the church. He is going to serve a Mission next year and wants to join us in lessons. We are excited and will try to get him involved with us as soon as possible.

That's this past week. Tomorrow is transfers! Elder Mitchell is transferring. Most likely going North. I am staying south with Elder Oleson.

I need a haircut... guess I know what I'm doing Tonight!

Due to my struggle trying to wake up 6:30a every day, I have a few friends from our Zone as well as my ASL District to join me in a Fast Yesterday. I hope to improve the morning schedule and I hope these last two transfers I work as hard as I can. I be as obedient as I can.

General Conference is coming up and I'm excited! My last one as a Missionary. I can't wait to hear the living Prophets on the Earth talk to us about things we need to prepare for. I hope we can be ready!

Have a wonderful week! Love ya'll!

Love,

Elder Gardner

Progress in the Branch!

Family and friends,

It's been a crazy week! Our ASL Class we host Tuesdays at 7 wasn't successful last week. No one showed up! So we hope someone comes this next week.

We had an Elder's Quorum exchange Wednesday. Elder McGill and I had a meeting as a Presidency and got a lot of progress done. Thursday was fantastic. We visited an investigator names Kaitlyn. The background of this story, first. A week ago Sunday we visited a referral by the name of Kaitlyn. We had a powerful introduction of ourselves as Missionaries and she was very interested. We visited her a second time last week and she had problems with her grade at school and her mom wasn't happy so we asked if she was reading her scriptures and she said she gave them to her boyfriend to read. So we gave her a second copy. Then just before Sunday we texted her and asked if she was coming to church. Turns out she had already started to read the Book of Mormon AND prayed about it AND knows it's true AND wants to be baptized. She came to church with three guy friend, one being her boyfriend. He told me he was smoking and wanted to quit and she was trying to help. His deaf church has problems so he wanted to find a new church to go to. He said he wanted to be baptized in our church. So I told him the requirements. He wants to quit smoking and I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ will help him! So we have two progressing investigators who want to be baptized!

We had Dinner at a member's house who is a true cowboy family. They cooked us the best steak I've ever had on my Mission! Wow. Friday we did exchanges again, I went North with Elder Erickson and McGill. Good day. My two companions found a new investigator! Saturday we went back to member's home and we helped build shelves in their garage and do sanding to their stairs. Good time! Then we tried to contact a few people ad then went to a member's home for dinner.

Sunday was good. Not a lot of people showed up, many of the leaders were gone but I taught both Sunday School and conducted the Priesthood meeting. Sacrament was good. Two members gave talks before they get released. We did family history afterward and the APs and YSA Sisters showed up and we chatted and stuff.

It's been a good week, and I hope we can progress and take advantage of the possible last week we have together.

Oh and 3 months 1 day left. I'm not trunky. ;)

Love,

Elder Gardner.