Last Preparation day! Wow. That is such a weird thought. I am so pumped
to go and do things. I wanna talk to everybody. The people that I meet will
probably be the best part. I cannot wait!
In answer to your question, no I am not worried – I think I am ready. With the Lord's help
we can do literally anything good. Like
it says in 1 Nephi 3:7 “I will go and do
the things the Lord has commanded.” He
gives no commandments and requires nothing of us unless he will prepare a way
for us to do that thing. Some people might be worried about going to Russia,
where will I go? What will I say? How will I know what to do when I get there? But,
I am not worried. We will be helped! Like the hymn How Firm a Foundation says, “Fear not, I am with thee oh be not
dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll STRENGTHEN thee,
HELP thee, and cause thee to STAND" We have nothing to fear! We are on the
Lord's errand and he will be with us and help us to bring this happy message to
the people who need it most.
Sign on our wall
That missionary plaque looks great! I am so cute – ha ha. However, I think the
scriptures might be upside down... is that the tassel that hangs out the bottom
of the scriptures? Pink eye wasn’t fun
but the good news is I didn't infect anybody else so I will count that as a
success.
I sang in church on Sunday and it was great! I recorded the
practices but they are too big to send over e-mail. You are going to have to
wait a couple years to enjoy :) You are
right that before my mission I just thought of singing in Church as a way to get
me to quit being a lazy bum. Now I see
it as an opportunity to share a testimony through song. Saying your testimony
once a month is great, but singing it is so much better! I feel much more
confident now expressing the feelings of my heart, whereas before I was kind of
stoic and didn't really get up too often. I am so thankful already for the chance
to be a missionary!
We got our travel plans on Friday. On Monday we fly from Salt Lake to LAX and
then we fly to Seoul, South Korea. We
are on the ground for a couple of hours and then we fly to Vladivostok. I
believe it is about 30 hours of travel to get there. If our math was correct, then it should be 26
hours or so in a plane. I was told 26 hours but I didn't do that math so it
could be off by a little. I will attach a picture of the flight itinerary.
We fly out around 6:30 PM so I will try and call you from the airport a couple
of hours before we leave.
Notice that we skip over Tuesday, Sept 30
We gave a 40 minute lesson to a Russian lady over Skype. We
were teaching about faith and I got this idea about 10 minutes before our
lesson to put 1 Nephi 3:7 in there. We never used that scripture before but I
thought, "Hey that could be a good idea" so in it went. We are
teaching this wonderful lady, and when I shared that scripture she gets a big
smile on her face :) She got teary eyed and said she wanted to cry. She told us
that we had just answered her question. I still do not know what her question
was, but we were able to answer it. It was such a great experience.
Elder Russel M.
Ballard came and talked to us last night. He gave a great talk about setting
goals, giving each day your best, and not kidding yourself at the end of the
day. Each day we give all we can, get a good night’s sleep and do it again
tomorrow. If we think too far into the future, it will get overwhelming. Just
take it one day at a time.
This Church is true and I Love You,
Love,
Старейшина Гарднер
Elder Gardner
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