Sorry about not writing super great letters recently. I really haven't had a whole lot of time. I have been writing longer letters to President Perkinson each week so I have had less time to write you. We found some extra time this P-day so here is a little bit more about my week.
I am doing good and this week was a good week. We are tracting more and more houses each week. We are getting more lessons too and we even got a new investigator this week but it isn't enough for me. We tracted 162 houses and had 14 people at church which are really great numbers! We even met a lady name Tatiana. She was interested and let us into her house and we got to teach her a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. We have 4 lessons this week which is pretty low, but that’s what happens when you go tracting so much. I am very grateful though for the success that we are having. It reminds me of the Scroll Marked II. It says "I will greet this day with love in my heart. I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars." I imagine that being darkness in the form of hardships and set backs. When everything is dark it makes it possible to see the little specks of light up in the sky. If it never got dark we would never be able to enjoy the beauty of the starry night sky. When it gets dark it really helps us to see the little mercies and little successes.
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| I gave myself most of this haircut! Elder Bates helped me blend the sides. Doesn't look too bad. :) |
We are at a tough cross-roads in our work. We have 80 people
on the branch list. Only 10 or so come to church regularly. We went through the
list and looked at everyone who would be interested in the church and who could
help build up the branch. Out of the 80 people there we have around 5 men who
are interested in the church and would be able to build up the branch. And we
have about 10 women who fall into the same category. 3 of the men are less than
15 years old and the other 2 are in college and don't come each week. The women
are wonderful but can't be Branch Presidents or Counselors. We have been trying
to find the golden balance between our first option, meeting with our members
to help them grow and progress, and the second option of going out to find new
people. Right now though we are focused more on the “finding” aspect of
missionary work. We need to find some people who can carry this branch.
We went to a facility that helps people that can't take care
of themselves. They are all religious and they love Jesus. We had a great
lesson with them and then we got a chance to sing some hymns for them. We told
them that we wanted to sing for them and they said "Oh hey! We've got a
guitar here if you wanna play!" I have played a little bit on the mission
and Sister Stevenson knows that I am not very good. She said that I shouldn't
play but I did it anyways haha. J We
sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" and "Because I Have Been
Given Much" and "Lord I Would Follow Thee". With my basic
knowledge of chords and music I was able to play a couple of them. We sang the
last one acapella. I am trying to use my talents so that I don't lose them. They
really loved the hymns.
I learned that the Fish symbol that symbolizes the feeding
of the 5,000 used to be a secret symbol. They told me that it used to be a sign
between Christians to let one another know that they were both Christians
without expressly stating it. You would meet someone and draw with your finger
the top half of the fish body... Like a little hill kinda looking thing. Then
the other person, if he is in the club, should finish the drawing and draw with
his finger the bottom half of the fish, like a shallow U. That's how you would
know who is a Christian and who isn't. That's what the guys at the place told
me! Haha I had no idea, I had never heard of that before.
We also made bread for the sacrament bread this week. Yum.
We bought a big bag (500 g) of yeast. We
will be making lots of bread :) Elder Bates gave a great talk about the
teachings of Jesus' life and how he is the way, the truth and the life. We had
a good Sunday.
I thought of something that you might want to consider for
my birthday. How about some Kraft
Mac-n-Cheese? That's a quick dinner and it’s very tasty. Or maybe even
hamburger helper :) Can't go wrong with that!
Yes I am now the proud owner of a brown suit. Elder Kluff
(who served with me in Angarsk) went home recently and didn't want his brown
suit - so I took it:) It is still in nice condition. It’s a little bit long but
I know how to hem the pants. The rest fits good :) well... good enough!
I probably won't be going to Korea again until the end of
May. Three months is such a short amount
of time between Korea trips, I still haven't mastered the Korean language.
I hope you don't rip ALL your hairs out this week with the
crazy kids, good luck! I love you.
My high was tracting lots of houses and my low was not
having our members stay for 2nd hour :(
I love you all.
Elder Gardner
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