Summer in Russia

Hey there! Everything is pretty good in the Motherland:) Sounds like you all had a great week:) I am jealous that you got to see the family again for Ashley’s homecoming.   Before you know it, we are going to be gathering together for my homecoming talk! 



Some cool statue thing haha I don't know what it is, or what it's for... just a big egg on the ground

We have been baking all week but this morning we got rained on and it was quite a relief! We had a baptism this past week. His name is R______. He is a really great guy and although I didn't really teach him much it was still good to see him get baptized. I don't know... I don’t really count them as MY baptisms. I didn't do anything, I wasn't the reason they got baptized. They got baptized because they love the Lord and because they want to follow him. R_______ was the 2nd person who got baptized, that I helped teach. The first was M_______, but he basically baptized himself. We just helped him stay focused and on track and he was prepared to do what the Lord expected of him. That was kind of the same way with R_______. He accepted everything that the other elders have been teaching him for the past few months. I just jumped in the past 2 weeks or so and he was already prepared in my opinion. It is cool to see how the Lord works to prepare people to accept the message of his church. 

There was a shoe repair kiosk on the side of the road. 500 rubles for new bottoms:) (About $8)

I was happy to get the package this week:) President and Sister Perkinson came on out and are going to be here for a few days. They brought the package! Thank you so much for the Hawaiian tie and stuff:) There is a sister who is serving in Irkutsk with us right now who's name is Sister Stevenson. She is Polynesian and it is cool talking about Hawaii and stuff with her. I told her I got some Chocolate Macadamia nuts and a Humuhumunukunukuapua'a luggage tag and she was able to understand haha, I also said Talofa to her and she laughed. The next step is to convince her to teach all the missionaries how to do the Haka. I am praying that my next companion likes tacos because I now have 2 cans of El Pato and Elder Gray doesn't like tacos! It is really a shame.



We found a Mexican restaurant here! The workers don't speak Spanish though, haha but we taught them a few good phrases. Gracias mi amigo. Bienvenidos. Como estas? Me llamo... The workers there think we are a bit odd haha but that's okay:)

Sometimes I write letters to Michael, but most of the time I don't have enough time. He sent me a copy of his weekly letter last week and it was cool to read. Each mission has it's own problems and each missionary has a special set of skills to help where he is serving. It is great to see:) 

These past few weeks we have been searching for apartments and we are looking all around Irkutsk for one. We are trying to find one that is far from the other one. In case you don’t know, Irkutsk is GIANT. We hopped on a bus the other day and started going out to a member who was sick in the hospital. We drove about an hour and a half when we got a call from him saying he was at the church. Haha he got out of the hospital and didn't tell us. We still were in the middle of big city area and hadn't reached the hospital yet. Irkutsk is big. We headed on back to the church to find out he got bored and went home haha oh well:) that was the main part of our afternoon spent on a bus one day this week! 

Irkutsk is a big city but not a big branch. Well, it is bigger than some areas but we have been struggling for some reason! In the past we had around 80 people at church but nowadays there are only 40 or so coming. We are trying to help and keep in contact with as many people as we can but hopefully we can bring more in soon. 

We have around 10 lessons or so every week, 2 or 3 lessons have a member who helps us teach and 1 or 2 new investigators every week. That would be a good week for us:) A high week would be 15 lessons, 4 or 5 in the presence of a church member and 3 or 4 new investigators. For now we don't have anyone too close to baptism but we are working hard trying to find with faith:)

We have been playing chess at nights recently and one of our members is really good. Gotta beat him!

As we were looking for apartments the other day we were walking around when a man passed us. He was walking the same way as us and just passed us when he said "Hey guys" in English and his shirt had a diver down flag on the back. I asked if he was a diver and told him I was too! He didn't seem to believe me, so I asked what kind of diving he does. I asked if he does "Tri-mix" diving or if he ever does wreck diving.  After that he seemed to believe me and he told me that he was a rescue diver! Pretty crazy:) He was born in Irkutsk, studied in Puerto Rico for a few years and dives everywhere. Pretty cool guy, we invited him to our English Practice and he said he would come! 

We are still struggling a bit to find lots of people to teach. We baptized R_______ and now we need to find an apartment before the school year starts. Wish us luck! We have a full plate.

 

We met some more circus people this week. They are all from Kenya and their names are Fred, Sarah, Omar, and Marcel. They look like regular people, nice and happy and healthy and not smelly:) haha Marcel has dread locks and he normally keeps them up in a pony tail on top of his head. Sarah is really pretty and she's a dancer. Fred is super muscular, so is Marcel but Fred has super short hair. Omar is kinda chunky but they are all acrobats in the circus:) Hopefully we will have a chance to go see the circus! I want to go:)

I hope you have a good week, and I hope you remember that no matter what happens in life it is for the best. My friend sent me something the other day that I enjoyed, I will attach it. 

Ya know how sometimes you are just walking along and then you see something and all of a sudden you just have all of these thoughts come into your head of ideas how it relates to the gospel and stuff? I had one of those when we saw a mosaic that is like thousands of years old. I started thinking about how our lives can, in a way, represent a huge mosaic. My first thought was that when you look at a mosaic closely, all you can see is a few tiny stones that just don't make much sense. Sometimes we look at our current situation like this and are confused, when really we just need to take a step back and see how those few rocks are an important part of a much bigger picture that is beautiful. It's like keeping an eternal perspective. Secondly, I thought of how unique the beauty of a mosaic is. They really are sooooo beautiful, but it's not the beauty that you find in a perfect painting or an epic photograph. Mosaics aren't beautiful because they don't have any flaws. In fact, you can see how it really is just made up of a ton of tiny seemingly insignificant pieces. Some rocks are cut jaggedly, the outlines aren't smooth, but all together it becomes impressive. I guess one of the most beautiful things about it is simply that someone was so willing and able to put so much time and effort into making it. 

All of this reminded me of the scripture found in Matthew 5:48 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." I'm sure you know this, and I think it says it in the footnotes, but the word "perfect" in this verse doesn't mean "without flaw". It really means "complete" or "whole". I think at the end of the day, our lives are the kind of perfect that a mosaic is. It's not flawless, but it's complete. It's full of obvious mistakes, but they all come together to make something whole. I just know that as we keep trying and working that whatever setbacks we may have, the Lord is going to make them into something beautiful if we will come to Him and receive His Atonement.

I love you all!  I am thankful for the support and love!  The Church is true, the Book is blue and Moroni is always on the ball.  :)

Elder Gardner

Everyone knows of the leaning tower of Piza but this is the leaning house of Irkutsk.

Good Week

Hey there. I am doing good! We had a good week this week. We started a new plan of attack here in Irkutsk. Lately we have been having less people come to church each week than normal. So, we made a ton of different lists. Lists of the birthdays of people. Other lists of anniversaries and some of when our members got baptized. We are trying to remember the important things in these people’s lives and become their friends. Normally they meet us and we serve for a few months and then we move to a different city. The members aren't usually super close to the missionaries but I have seen how much it can help people stay strong when difficulties come. I would want the missionaries in my home ward to be close to and take an interest in my family if they had any problems. The same I should do for all these people. 

It has been raining quite a bit this week. That has been a good thing though because it helped us meet with one of our members. He doesn't come to church or meet with us ever. Do you know why? He is sun-tanning. We asked him why he tans a lot and he said it is because it heals him. We asked him what kind of sickness he has and he won’t tell us, he just says the sun is his medicine and he needs it. He doesn't work ever, he doesn't do anything.... literally... ever. Every single time I call him and ask what he did during the day he says "I went tanning". I ask what else and he doesn't know what to reply. Why would I do anything other than tan?? Russians have interesting habits and thoughts haha it is fun to watch, but sometimes annoying. 

I am glad to hear that school is starting again! School is probably even better than summer :) Oh quick question I have been thinking for a while, but can't remember exactly. Where did Lane serve? Moscow? I vaguely remember that but I am not sure if it is correct. What does he do for work nowadays? 

Everyone here in Irkutsk is nice. We haven't had any crazy drunk people or mean people from what I can remember. The Circus is in town and we made lots of black friends. haha it has been a long time since I have seen a black person. We met a few people, they are all from Kenya. Fred, Sarah, and Omar. We always wave at another guy but he never told us his name. The circus is in town for a few months and hopefully we can go see it :) 

I love Elder Brown, he is probably one of my favorite companions I have had. Even back when he was serving in Vlad a few months ago and I was just passing through for my Korea trip, we clicked right away and were awesome friends. He is having a hard time on the mission right now just because of some drama in Angarsk. I shouldn't talk about it, but it is silly and he is dealing with it really well. He is going back to Pima in 2 weeks! Oh another fun fact I found out, Sister Perkinson is from Morenci if I remember correctly. She knows about Casa and EAC. Pretty cool! 

I unfortunately haven't gotten the package yet. I haven't been to Vlad in a month and a half:) I got Grandpa Woods' email but I am afraid I won’t have enough time to reply :( We were talking about an article in the Liahona magazine this week at church. It talks about the benefits of waking up early and I was reminded of you and how you woke us up early all the time! In the moment, I wasn't too thrilled but I am thankful for it now. Thank you for your great example! 

Thank you for the inspirational quotes and things each week! Those are very cool I love reading them. 

We had a good week full of visits to old lady babushkee and crazy members of the church. They are very nice but they have a certain way they want things to be done and if we don’t listen to them then they start yelling haha. We were helping a lady clean her house and I was mopping the floor. She started correcting me and what she was saying just didn't make any sense whatsoever. I kinda just kept going and she started to shout haha luckily someone else there understood and said it simpler so that I could understand. It was a close call! I am glad to serve nevertheless. 

I love you all and hope you have a good week:) 

Elder Gardner

Half Way Mark

It is weird that I am half way through my mission this week!  

I might have written that we were struggling to find people to talk to, but I don't actually remember if our weeks were rough two weeks ago... I honestly can't. I remember we couldn't find anyone to meet with us but if thats my biggest problem then I have life pretty easy:) This week we had lots of people to meet with which was cool but I guess not the most important thing in life.

 

Elder Gray is no longer training so he is officially a real missionary now! In our mission, being Zone Leader and District Leader and such isn't a big deal. People get switched around all the time. I don't expect to be Zone leader for long, and I don't care too much haha. I feel like there is just a higher standard that every one is held to around here. Everyone should be ready to do what it takes to ensure the success of those investigators we know and love and even those we don't know or haven't yet grown to love.  

 

 President Perkinson is great:) He has a good way of running things.  He helps us all understand our goal and shows us what we should go to achieve it.  He is trying to cut down on expenses recently. Apparently we spend a lot of money out here haha with Zone meetings and flights all across the eastern half of Russia and stuff. I am not going to Vlad this month for Missionary Leadership Council. So the only Zone leader responsibilities I have fulfilled recently... well two weeks ago I got a call from President asking how the West Zone was doing. We had a 10 minute talk about that and thats it:)    It really helps that all the missionaries know what needs to get done and they don't need a whole lot of correcting, they just do it. 

 

We are currently serving in a tri-companion companionship. Elder Gray, Elder Sitton and me. Elder Sitton is from Arkansas and is going home in 3 weeks. While he was on his mission, his family moved and when he comes home to give his homecoming talk, he won't know anyone haha.  After that, Elder Gray and I will probably be training 2 new missionaries. There are a lot coming in soon. 

 

This week Elder Gray went to Korea and I went back to Angarsk for a day to work with Elder Brown. This week was kind of crazy. All the missionaries who fly from Vlad to Angarsk/Irkutsk/Ulan Ude come through Irkutsk. We had a lot of people sleeping over and stopping by as they were getting into their areas a week into the transfer. Fun stuff!

 

As far as I know, we don't do any crazy things like burning shirts or anything like that to celebrate year marks. We will probably make a fruit smoothie or something to celebrate my year mark haha. Elder Sitton goes home soon so we will probably be celebrating in a few weeks all over again! 

 

This week it rained a lot and we got soaked a few times. No big deal, at least we didn't get splashed by a bus again:) 

 

I hope this week will be good for you all! Stay safe and cool and most of all stay Frosty!

 

Elder Gardner

 

 

Visiting Lake Baikal:) Our taxi driver was a big smoker haha go figure!

Lake Baikal

I wore a hole through these brown shoes. They cost 1000 rubles back in Nakhodka! (About $17)  They lasted pretty long I was surprised!

 

Rough Week

My week was good but it is always a challenge here in Russia! My year mark is on the 31st... pretty soon! Then we are on the downhill stretch :)   

I miss you. I hope all is well.  This week in Russia was a rough week. We didn't meet with anyone. Nobody answered their phone and we were kinda just stuck on the street trying to talk to people all day... and nobody wanted to talk with us:)  Although today we went to Lake Baikal and had fun. I got some rocks. Do you want one? They are real Baikal rocks. 

 

The Russians here are SUPER superstitious... Like I wouldn't say that I am superstitious, just a little 'stitious.' They say if you drink Baikal water then you accept the lakes energy into your organism and you are healthier. haha they are weird... oh yeah that's where the hooker tried ensnaring me! And we saw a couple topless chicks... they might have looked hot... you know... maybe 75 years ago!! Hahaha it was so gross;) Baikal was way cool though, I would not recommend visiting. It isn't worth going all the way to Russia. 

 

We went in our suits and ties and got the stupidest looks from some people.  Can you just imagine some stupid Americans wearing white shirts, ties, and dress pants walking along the beach with Nakey old ladies picking up rocks and putting them in their pockets :) I thought it was pretty funny. I almost bought a samurai sword but decided against it:) This week I also made a cat friend. She was 3 weeks old and probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. We also got rained on but that wasn't the best part. We were out walking in the rain when Mr. Schoolbus drove through a puddle and splashed us with muddy water:) Beep Beep! haha  We went home and changed after that, good day! I love you and miss you! Tell me about your week

 

Elder Gardner

Summertime

Hey there! All is well here in Russia. We have been blessed with rain the past few days. It has been hot for a while now, about 35 degrees (95 f. for those of you in America). It isn't that bad, when compared with your 110! I am feeling pretty comfortable :)
 

The stuff that falls from the trees, called pookh, isn't too fun:p We were playing basketball last P-day and as I went up for a 540 behind the back slam dunk I inhaled some pookh and got a piece stuck in my throat! Hahah it was horrible:) We also saw some people lighting big piles of it on fire. They think it is easier to burn it than to sweep it out of the way. This rain is helping keep it down though. I am thankful!  
 

This week our pianist didn't show up for Church and I was the lucky individual who got to play for sacrament meeting. I wouldn't say I am good yet, but definitely improving:) I would reccomend that to all missionaries present and future. Learn to play the piano! It is such a dissapointment having to sing without accompaniment because most of the time, people don't sing very loudly or very proudly. But as we know, you should always Sing Loud and Sing Proud! Music is probably one of the best ways to invite the Holy Ghost too. We like to sing sometimes at the beginning of our lessons when we meet with people and that is always fun:)
 

This week I didn't get to go to Ulan-Ude. The plans didn't work out because they are coming to Irkutsk this week. There will be a big conference with President Perkinson so us going to Ulan-Ude last week would have been excessive.  
 

It is great to be here in Russia, not much happened this week:) We met with some less active members of the Church and they are going to their old Church. They don't like our Church because its boring and they said they like their old Church because there they get to dance and sing and basically party haha... interestingggg:p 
 

We tried explaining to them that there is one true church on the Earth. We showed them the verse in the Bible in Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 5. And it felt just like in the Joseph Smith video. "If there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism then why do the churches all differ in their teachings? Shouldn't there be one answer that is correct?" That is a really big problem here. We talk to people all day, and nearly every person tells us "All churches are true." We ask how that can be true and if they all teach something different. For example, in the Pravoslavnee (Russian Orthodox) Church they say that babies need to be baptized because of Adams sin. Sometimes it is called original sin. In other churches they say that babies don't need to be baptized because they haven't sinned. They are clean. We ask people which teaching is true and do you know what they reply? "Both are true. You can't say that one Church is wrong and one is right. It just depends on what you believe." That doesn't make sense in my head. Do babies need to be baptized or not? They don't seem to think there is an absolute truth in this world.
 

It reminds me of the talk given by D. Todd Christopherson in the October General Conference of 2014. He said "To those who believe anything or everything could be true, the declaration of objective, fixed, and universal truth feels like coercion—“I shouldn’t be forced to believe something is true that I don’t like.” But that does not change reality. Resenting the law of gravity won’t keep a person from falling if he steps off a cliff. The same is true for eternal law and justice."
 

I don't know how to better explain it than that:) There is one true church of God on this earth. I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay healthy:)
 

 

Stay Frosty,
 

Elder Gardner

New Mission President

It was a good week this week:) I flew to Vlad Wednesday morning at 3 am and worked there all day with the Assistants to the President. On Thursday we had MLC and got to witness first-hand the leadership style of President Perkinson. Interesting:) Very different. We flew back at 4 am on Friday morning and I might have another trip this week to Ulan-Ude to do a training for the missionaries there. It isn't set in stone though.

President Perkinson is a great guy. He is full of love and shows it more than President Brinton. Maybe that’s because that is his style, or maybe because he is sleep deprived and it was his first day in Russia when we met haha. We will find out in a few weeks which it was. President Brinton always promised us blessings if we were obedient and did what was expected of us as missionaries. We focused on what we were allowed to do, and what we weren't allowed to do. When President Perkinson got here, he talked about how he didn't think that is the best way to go about it. We had some questions about what was allowed and what things we shouldn't do. President Perkinson brought all the questions back to doctrine. We shouldn't worry about all the little minute details. If we are doing what we should and working hard then we won’t worry about all the little tiny details and we won’t be worrying over every little dot on the page. This doesn't mean that we are throwing the rules out of the window. We have the scriptures, we have the Missionary Handbook to help guide us, we know what we should do and what we shouldn't do. He says if we make a little mistake and wake up 10 minutes late, he isn't bringing the hammer down on us. We know when we should get up and that mistake will be between us and the Lord. This leadership style is different. I think it will work out really well :) 

I am jealous of the time you got to spend with the family over the 4^th of July! I hope everyone is doing all right:) I am glad to hear that dad went and talked to the missionary he saw standing alone in Hawaii. I love talking with people. Especially when they just come up to me! It is just a pleasant little thing and definitely makes me smile every time someone wants to talk to me! Oh yeah! I met a member this week :) He came up and sat on a bench next to where we were talking with our friend Charles from Ghana. The man just came and listened for a little bit and then started to talk to us. Turns out he is from Novosibirsk and was just passing through. Pretty cool! He was a way cool guy too. 

This week there was a baby blessing in church and it was super cute! It was my first one in Russian that I got to see. It is way cool to think that there is a family here in Irkutsk where the kids are getting to be raised in the gospel :) I have seen how the Church has blessed our family so much and I am so grateful for that strong influence in our lives. I love you all:)

Stay Frosty! 

Elder Gardner

11 Months

Hey! I am glad to hear that all is well in Arizona!  All is good here in the Motherland! We are working pretty hard and its pretty hot right now:) There is this kind of poof/ snow/ cotton everywhere. It is falling from the trees and this kind of tree is planted everywhere in Irkutsk.  It is pretty annoying, it sticks to your face and gets in your nose and tastes SUPER bad. haha But it’s not a big problem, there has been worse and will probably be bigger problems in the future:) No worries.

Life is good! Our Korea trips are always short.   We are always in Korea for less than 12 hours. We fly in at like 7 oclock p.m.  We go to McDonalds then straight to the Temple and then sleep and then fly out 6 am the next day:) I haven't seen any Korean missionaries yet, but hopefully one day I’ll run into Calvin!

It’s it awesome that you met a lot of people this week. I love meeting people! This week we didn't meet a whole lot of foreigners. Some people from Germany who were trying to exchange their money, and that’s about it:( Sad.   I also got a message from a mom of one of the incoming missionaries:)

This week we had some good success:) We met a man named V____  who has a family and wanted to meet with us. He asked a lot of questions and some of the things he told us, some of his beliefs sounded a bit silly but he was super nice and he came to church and seemed to enjoy it:) Hopefully he comes back for more. There was an argument going on our whole 3rd hour about what to do in life. What do we put on the top spot, God or material possessions?  Our president of the branch said we put God on the top spot. A member said if we put God on the top spot we need to put material possessions right there with him. That took up about the whole time and I felt so embarrassed that they were arguing the whole time when we had investigators at church:( Next week hopefully is better.

There is a member here who has cool Soviet era military clothes:) We went over and did a photo shoot at his house:) I will send some pictures although most of them are on Elder Gray's camera.

I am going to Vladivostok Wednesday Morning at 3 am:) We will be having the MLC meeting with the new President! Pretty crazy:) :)  President Perkinson will be with us on July 2nd at MLC. His first or second day here he will be leading us. Hopefully all will go well, I will also have an interview with him on Thursday! No pressure. : p

This week we had our district meeting but our 2 sisters were in Angarsk. They couldn't come over to Irkutsk so we had to Skype them into the meeting which was pretty interesting:) I played the piano at church too. I like playing.  I know, I didn't think I would ever say that!  Back in the day I didn't see a reason to practicing but now I practice because I want our members to have a good Sacrament meeting. It gives me a reason to practice and its cool getting to play for them.

We made Peach Cobbler this week:) Not SUPER tasty, gotta improve our recipe if possible. Wish me luck!

I hope you have a good week:) I love you all!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Gardner