Their testimonies are strong

This week was a good week. I really enjoyed the zone conference and learned a lot.  I am grateful for the Perkinsons, they really work hard to make sure we are on the right path and are happy. They are wonderful.  

The branch is doing good, although there weren't very many people at church this week. 14 people showed up. If we aren't counting the 5 missionaries then only 9 members. Very small. It was Fast Sunday because last week was the conference in Vlad. We had almost everyone get up and bear a testimony during sacrament meeting which was wonderful to see. But imagine 14 testimonies taking up the whole sacrament meeting hour. There were some big gaps between testimonies where people were just sitting there in the silence waiting for someone to get up. I am grateful to those who got up. Even though we have small numbers in this branch their testimonies are strong.
 

Thanks for your concern about the motivations of some single girls.  Thank you for calling me cute, but I really haven't had any problems with this. There have been a few times when girls giggle at us on the busses and say hello in English, but that's really it. I can't recall a time when this was a problem :) But I will keep my "Joseph in Egypt" shoes with me from now on! Don't worry about me.

We met some new people and got behind some walls. I am excited to see what will happen from here. We finally found a place to do some pottery and we took our lunch hour the other day to go make some pots and make some friends in the process. The place is called Istoki and we met a guy who works there named Evgenii. He was really interested in us as people and why we were in Russia. We didn't try to push the gospel on him, but he seemed to enjoy talking about it. He speaks English pretty well and has traveled around Asia doing pottery. He believes in God but doesn't really do anything to worship him. I was able to show him some pottery tricks and things that we did at my school and he showed me some things that I didn't know and it was a good learning experience for both of us. We are inviting him to English practice tonight, hopefully he can come.

Our lesson with Nikolai was a really nice lesson. We were not able to visit him on Thursday like we had wanted, but we were able to go on Friday instead. Little did we know that Friday was the day that the sisters were going to visit Looba, his wife. It wasn't a problem though because we just sat in different rooms and didn't bother one another. I feel kind of bad for him, he tries to be a good father and help his kids do the right thing but he isn't sure how to do it, and even when he does good sometimes his wife gets upset at him for punishing the kids. We were talking to him about his sons who were drunk and he was pretty upset that they were always drunk. We talked to him about the importance of family and having a loving atmosphere at home. We talked about if he had a hard day at work he could go and get drunk and that would calm him down, but that's really not a good way to relieve stress. Or if he had a stressful day at work he could come home, play with his kids and spend time with his family and that would be such a more productive way to deal with stresses in his life. Then we told him that he was the head of the house and if he wanted something to happen then he would have to set the example. A little bit later he said "Well drinking a little bit really isn't that bad". Oh Nikolai No! We testified about families and the Word of Wisdom and hopefully he gets it a little bit more. He's a great guy but needs more support to change into the person he wants to become.

We had another good experience with tracting the other day. We met a guy who was pretty young and said he knew the missionaries in the past. He wasn't super interested but we asked him if he needed any help with anything. He asked if we knew how to skin and clean fish. I said no, but Elder Siebach knew how so we came in and talked with him for a little bit while Elder Siebach cleaned some fish and showed him how it’s done. He was pretty grateful and we made a new friend. It’s pretty easy for us to make friends right away but getting a second meeting with these people is hard. I am not exactly sure what to do, it's frustrating sometimes.

I gave my self a haircut.  What do you think?

The thing about the Russian sense of humor is true. They have a really weird sense of humor. I learned a few jokes that Russians really enjoy but I don't think they are very funny:

1- A woman came up to a lake and saw a man in the lake swimming in his jacket. She says to the man "Why are you swimming in your jacket?" and he replies "I am cleaning it". She says to the man "That’s not needed I have a washing machine at home you can use". The man answers "No that would never work, I would get too dizzy".

2- A man was with his wife one night when she told him that she wanted to have snails for dinner. He went to the store to get some snails and while he was at the store he saw a group of his friends who invited him to go drinking with them. He said no, but after some coaxing they got him to come. "Only one drink" he said to them. Next thing he knows, he wakes up in a strange house a week later not knowing where he is. He eventually finds his way back to the store only to find that all the snails are gone, they only have live snails to buy so he gets those and runs home. He sets the snails down on the ground in a row and then rings the doorbell of his home and his wife comes to the door. When she opens the door he says to the snails "Hurry up! Are you going to take another week to get into the house too?"

I don't find those super funny but Russians laugh their heads off :)

The high of my week was having 2 Oreo milkshakes. Yum. The low was that I tried to do a workout the other day and I couldn't pick the weight up off the ground and it was pretty embarrassing :(

Thank you for all the support you give me, I love you so much!

Elder Gardner   

Visa Trip to Korea

Hey there!

This week was a great week:) Started off the week with a trip to the airport to pick up an Elder who was staying with us named Elder Nielson. He was in Irkutsk with me for a little bit. Then the next day we all left for Korea and I had more than 5 smoothies and shakes because they don't have those here in Artyom and I chose not to exercise any self-control:) We were so very blessed to be able to do 3 sessions in the temple. I wasn't expecting it and I am so grateful we had any early flight in to Korea because that gave us plenty of time to enjoy the Temple. I learned a lot.

Yes, I did get rid of all that Korean money :) However, I still have a ton of coins that I haven't gotten rid of because they are 10 won coins. They aren’t worth much.  If you want to buy even a pack of gum it will cost you around 1000 won – that is about a dollar.  So basically I have a ton of Korean pennies (if you want to look at them that way). I might just have to keep them - they will be good souvenirs.



Lunch at Zone Conference

We were walking down the road in Korea and I saw a piano on the side of the street. It was painted and decorated and I am not sure why it was there but I took the opportunity to play Hymn number 26 because it is one of the first ones I memorized and I can play it fairly well.  As I was playing a girl came up and made a video of me playing and after I finished she walked away very quickly and we didn't have a chance to talk to her. So if you see a video on YouTube of a young man in a white shirt and tie and wearing a big fluffy leather jacket playing Joseph Smith's First Prayer on a busy street corner in Korea, it is probably me.

Oh yeah, I wore my big jacket to Korea but that was a mistake. It was a bit chilly but I would have been fine in a short sleeve shirt, I was sweating pretty bad.

More Zone Conference

After getting back from Korea we went with Elder Hess to take him to the bus station so that he could take a bus back to his assigned area. We were waiting for his bus for maybe 30 or 40 minutes and while we were waiting a man came up speaking English asking if we could help him. He was dressed normally, it didn't seem like he was homeless or drunk, but we were a bit hesitant. He said that he was stuck in Russia and wanted us to get in touch with the US embassy and wanted us to help him get to America. This often happens but normally it is a Russian asking if we can get them to America. We started talking to him more and more trying to figure out the situation and he said that he was born in Korea, moved to America and grew up in Southern California. Right now he was living in Korea with his mother and came to Russia for a small day trip to see what it was like. He ended up riding the train too far and landed in North Korea where he was subsequently put under arrest. He said they treated him really well in North Korea and gave him a nice play to stay and good food to eat. They respected him but of course kept him in custody for some time to figure out why he came to their country. After a few days they let him go and he had been just wandering around the streets in Vlad and Artyom looking for a place to stay when we met him. He said he wanted to go to America but we couldn't really help with that. So we offered to let him use the church computer to email his family and get something arranged. He emailed his mom and then got in contact with his aunt who lives in Southern California.  

Within about 15 minutes he bought a plane ticket and was very very relieved to be going home. The next morning we met up with him again and took him to this good noodle shop near the bus stop and we all got some tasty noodles. Then we went to the airport and sent him off. I hope he made it all the way to California because he didn't speak Russian and had a 24 hour lay-over in Moscow before he flew to NYC. Hopefully he made the switch and everything is good with him. I am so grateful that we had the chance to help him out. We even talked with him about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. He was very interested and said that he wanted to come to church in California.

On our way home from the airport we were sitting on the bus going home and a guy got on the bus with a bunch of ski equipment. We started talking to him and turns out he is from Calgary, Canada and we helped him get on the right bus. He wasn't supposed to be on the one we were on. Lots of little opportunities to serve and it is such a blessing:) I am grateful to be here in Russia.

That is crazy that I already have a place to stay in Provo and I am signed up for classes. It is all becoming a reality haha. I can't wait to see Elder Riggs again, it will probably be super weird to start calling him Nick instead of Elder Riggs. I might just call him   "Фура". It means Semi-truck in Russian but could also be translated as Big-Rig!

That is so cool that everyone is doing so well with their studies. I am not jealous at all though haha I don't have to study anything expect the Gospel. The most applicable subject you can study. I never understood how learning the history of Delaware would help me in my daily life, or when I would ever need to know how to take the integral of a function. But the Gospel is applicable in all aspects of life and never gets boring:) I am a lucky individual.

Our investigator hasn't been doing too hot. We haven't seen him in over a month. He has been drunk every time we have a lesson scheduled and we haven't been able to teach anything. Ironically the last lesson we taught before this whole deal started was the Word of Wisdom.

I have been eating very well recently except for in Korea. I had lots of junk food there. I got your care package full of goodies and snacks. I have been trying to give some of the cookies away because there was plenty to share.  I know my whole district was grateful for the Girl Scout cookies!

Yes, we now have Assistants to the President again. I think we didn’t have them for just one transfer. They came back pretty quickly – I was still in Irkutsk at that time.  Everything is constantly changing but really the only constant thing in this life is change! I love you all and hope you have a successful week, whatever your idea of success might be.

Thank you for all that you do and I am grateful that I have parents as wonderful as you :)

Elder Gardner

 

I love our members

This week we had the APs come into town - Elders Lyman and Cluff. They are great elders.  I was with Elder Lyman when we went to visit a less-active member of the church. Her name is Nadya. She is very wonderful and her two kids always come to activities even if she can't always make it. She is normally very busy with work and other things. We went over and got to spend some time getting to know her better and teaching the family a bit. Then we got a call that one of our other church members needed help getting down the stairs. Luckily this older member who needed help lives in the same apartment building so we just went up to the 9th floor of this building and helped her down the rest of the way. It was a slow process but I was glad that we got the opportunity to help her. 

On Sunday we had a slow start to our church services. At the time when we were supposed to start there were only 3 members in their seats. It’s a little bit difficult to enthusiastically say "Hello brothers and sisters, we welcome you all to our sacrament meeting"  when there are very few people staring back at you. But it’s okay :) I am just very glad that we had those 3 because they are some of the nicest ones I know. I am glad that they had the strength and faith to come to church here.  By the end of the opening hymn we had around 18 people seated and that was nice to see.  Now if only people would come on time or even early!  That would surely be a miracle. 

I got the chance to give a lesson in priesthood about faith and we did an object lesson. I put a Soviet Union coin in my big fluffy hat and asked someone to come up and tell the rest of the people what he saw in the hat. That guy was the prophet. Then we had people say whether or not they believed him.  Then I told the class that this guys is only 14 years old, he doesn't know what a soviet union coin looks like. At the end we showed that there was a coin in the hat and we talked about faith and how we choose to show our faith. We don't just expect faith to appear one day, we need to act on what we hear from the prophets and apostles and pray to know the truth. Then we read the talk from the last conference about the Openshaw family by Neil L. Andersen. I think it turned out alright :) I am grateful for all of our church members. They show so much love and faith by coming to church often. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for them, but they consistently come and I am very inspired by their example to me. 

I am grateful for your letters :) Thank you very much for you constant love and care. I know it seems like a small thing and you are probably thinking "Of course, why wouldn't I write you a letter each week?" but it is very much appreciated and I love you.

This week was a good week, we worked with one of our members to help improve his house. He lives out in the woods and is a really simple guy. He loves the trees and nature and we spent some time out at his house doing some work. I am grateful for hard physical labor. It is always nice to get outside and move some heavy logs and stuff and use your brain. There is no substitute for picking up a big heavy log and pulling it a hundred feet or so. It feels pretty manly haha. We don't often get to do that so I am grateful for that experience. We also got to meet with some of our less-active church members. Spending time with them and learning about them is truly wonderful. Each person we see on the streets has a history of their own and feelings unique to them and it’s something special when a person will open up to you and you can help them see why living the way Jesus would like us to live is a good idea. I know that not only happiness, but real joy comes from living the commandments of God and helping others to do the same.

Right now in our Branch we are also trying to put together a branch history and send it in to the Church. I am not sure if you have ever seen one done before but there are lots of little pieces and they are all very cool. Maybe you could ask the bishop about it and you I am sure he would let you see the photos and read the stories from the Lakewood ward history from years past if you asked. I never even knew about it, but I am sure there are some really great memories written in them.

I love you all and hope you have a good week this week. I wish I had more time but Elder Siebach needs to get on. Maybe I can find some time after to write more, but if not just remember that I love you and miss you a lot!

Elder Gardner

When do you go to Korea again?

I leave for Korea in about 24 hours. We fly out tomorrow around noon and I can't wait. It’s crazy that this is the second to last Visa trip. I am bummed that Elder Riggs won't be there with us! He's always been with us and I am sure we will miss him a lot.

What is your favorite part of your Korea trip?

I mean I should say the temple. And of course every time that we are able to make it there in time for a session it is the best part of the trip.   However, out of all my trips there we have only made it to a session 2 or 3 times.  Don’t tell but one of the best things about our visa trips is all the junk food we get to eat. The Burger king, the McDonalds chocolate shakes, the Jamba Juice, the Baskin Robbins ice cream, the Dunkin Doughnuts. I’m just saying that it is possible that on my last Visa trip we hit all of those…in the span of less than a day... It was the holiday season, can you blame me?   J

When we met Elder Riggs he said the weirdest part of being home is having his own cell.  What do you think?

I can't even imagine having a phone that I won't have to share with someone else, let alone an iPhone.  That would be very weird.  We share an Alcatel 205D phone. It is very basic but it works.

Still snowing

Hey there! I am glad you liked the picture of us outside without coats, we were only outside for a few minutes luckily!  

Our attendance at church this week was a bit lower than we would have liked. Of course every Sunday is lower than we would like because we want EVERYONE to come! There were 15 people there this week. Not too bad, but we have seen better. 
This trip to Korea is going to be one of the last! You're right, it is pretty crazy, I can remember my very first one and each one since has been lots of fun.

It is great to see that Elder Rigs is home safe and sound. You are right, he is a very tall individual. He has a little saying "6' 4" to fit through the doors, but 6' 8" when I stand up straight". He went on almost every Visa trip with me and I really respect him. He is a great Elder and I look up to him in a physical sense but in a spiritual sense too :)

I am very jealous that you are going to visit Megan in a few weeks! That sounds great, although I don't know if she will have such warm weather like you have in AZ. I am glad to hear that you aren't freezing anymore in Arizona ha ha.  We still have some winter ahead of us - it was snowing today.  I am ready to get out of these jackets and long pants and boots. I really miss shorts and flip flops. I think I will quickly adapt back into Arizona weather.

I am glad to hear that everyone accepted me to go to college :) Out here on a mission some missionaries like to talk about their classes they took and what ACT and SAT scores they got. It is fun to compare. I honestly can't remember what my scores were and it’s probably better that way because I really didn't think they were that high.  There are some smart cookies out here.  As long as I don't tell people what my scores were they think that I smart person - but as soon as I tell them my scores they will know exactly where I rank haha.  It’s like that quote "Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".

ASU fans are everywhere

I think I am still leaning towards BYU. I am not sure exactly why, but I am thinking that getting a change of venues will be fun. I also am still considering a career in entrepreneurship/business. Maybe something along the lines of robotics or electronics or maybe programming or web/app design.  Actually, I don't a clue haha.  But I am interested in those kinds of things so maybe BYU would be good because they have a good entrepreneurship program. Or maybe ASU would be good because I heard they have a good engineering program which would go in line with robotics or electronics.  Any thoughts?

Interesting pop up ad on my computer

I don't know if I want to be a CIA agent in Russia but I definitely have things that I want to do with Russian after the mission. I want to translate a lot of things into Russian because there are a ton of faith promoting things that only exist in English and it’s kinda sad. I really love the Russian saints here and I am surprised by how much faith they have. I want to help them and I can do a little part of that by translating some documents and other things into Russian. One example is the book "Jesus the Christ". There are maybe 100 copies of that book in Russian ever produced and it is a great book that helps better understand the life and teachings of Jesus. It would help the Russian people understand the gospel better.  That is one thing I would like to do that once I get back from my mission :)

 

Our investigator is good I guess... We didn't have a chance to meet with him this week. He didn't come home from work and his wife was really worried about him. They are having strained relations right now and it doesn't seem like they had a good week. There are always ups and downs, hopefully we can meet with him this week and help him overcome his concerns. His concerns are not many, although his desire is also not very big. He says that he is Christian but he doesn't really know anything about the Bible or God other than the 10 commandments and the Jesus lived and died on a cross. It is basically like teaching a non-Christian. We talked about the Word of Wisdom last week and he didn't really take it very well. He believes that it is okay to drink black tea because it is more natural than the fruit tea we drink with all the dyes and preservatives added to it. We agreed with him and said we would drink only natural fruit tea if he would stop drinking black tea. He still couldn't commit. He also thinks that a little bit of alcohol is good and he has read some studies saying that a glass of wine or other alcohol will help keep you healthy.

We then have to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel and Joseph Smith and explain how everything we tell him depends on the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is true, that means that Joseph Smith is really a prophet who translated it by the power of God. If he is a prophet then we need to follow the commandments that God gave to us through Joseph. It was hard for him, and when we asked him simply to pray about the truthfulness of the Word of Wisdom he refused and it was sad for us. I still believe that he is a good guy and willing to change. He can do it :)

This week was a really good week, we had some missionaries visit us. Elders Williamson and Mark came to visit us and work with us for a day. It was great to see them. Elder Williams is a great elder and is really good about always testifying no matter where he is. That is something I can learn from him. Elder Mark is a Russian. He lives in Angarsk, where I served about 10 months ago with Elder Brown and Cluff. He didn't really come to church often back then. He came to play the piano and to play ping pong with us but wasn't super spiritual. Then he went on a mini mission and got excited about the gospel. Now he is going on another mini mission this time he is serving for 6 months. He is really cool, and sometimes eccentric but in a good way. He has a solid testimony that won't easily be shaken.   I see such an improvement in his life ever since he started putting the Lord first. It is a visible difference. That is my high for this week.  I know that the Gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ can literally change people. I don't really know how, but your life will improve if you put Jesus Christ first in your life.

Stay frosty there in Arizona, and don't forget to smile :)

I love you a lot

Elder Gardner

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

I keep telling people about how it is Arizona's birthday but people either don't believe me or don't care haha  That’s okay, I will celebrate on my own. They have Valentine’s day here in Russia, and flowers are a big thing. There are flower shops every 100 yards on the street. They are everywhere. It is actually like that all year round though.  I like it :)
Thanks for the love today! Yesterday was our Valentine’s day, and right now it is yours :) I am wearing a pink tie in honor of Valentine’s day. On Saturday we had a big party for the occasion. We had a heart making/decorating station, food, games and music and it was really great! We had plenty of people show up.  Yeah.  It wasn't awkward and empty.  The best part is that maybe half or almost half of the people were less-active members and/or non-members.

Our investigator is doing good. We were planning on teaching a lesson about the importance of Church attendance and scripture study but we got sidetracked and he wanted to know about why we don't drink black tea. So we spun the lesson to the Word of Wisdom and it turned out really well. He didn't accept to live it yet, but he is hopefully going to pray for an understanding of the principle and a confirmation that it is something that he should do. He isn't ready for baptism yet but we are praying and hoping.

In answer to your question about the broken leg - if you break your leg then they take you to the hospital and set the bone and then they put a kind of clamp on your leg to hold it all in place. Then you sit in a bed for a few weeks while it heals. They don't really have a hospital food company or entertainment or anything. They leave that up to the patient’s family to come and take care of the patient. It is the same thing with fresh clothing. We have been doing a very minor part of it all. I am not sure if the family visits the lady in our branch but we have been trying to help a bit. She loves sudoku and cookies so that’s what we brought. Maybe next time we can bring something else. Maybe not sweets, but real food :)

Crazy kids - feel the burn.

Shorts with a big fluffy jacket.

I am glad to hear that Kyle Greenwalt is getting his Eagle project done. That's so great. Maybe he could add as part of his project to get some people to go spend with the kids in the hospital. I am not sure how that would work out, but I have realized how lonely it can get. We visit people at the hospital and we realize that although we bring them Liahona magazines, cookies and maybe we show a small video to them, it isn't a whole lot. I have realized that although that stuff is really good and fun sometimes, as soon as we leave that apartment there won't be another visitor for another week. Can you even imagine? Just sitting at home, your sight is going bad, you know how to make wonderful food but you have nobody to share it with, and you have stories from your lifetime but again nobody that you can inspire with those stories. So you sit at home, waiting for someone to come talk to you, maybe you talk to the mail lady as they drop some mail off, or you can watch the TV but how long will that last you? It’s kinda sad. Time is probably one of the most precious things we can give to someone, because it can never be repaid. That time spent with the person can't come back and it lifts a person from sadness better than any material gift in my opinion.
I hope that didn't sound too sad or gloomy. But maybe this Valentine’s day we could focus on spending time with those who would benefit from it, and not just with those who are the most fun to be around!

Oh and by the way, don't forget! Grandma Gardner's birthday is coming up soon :) It’s the 17th right? I hope I am not mistaken.

Our week was good, we had some ups and some downs. Some people we visited asked us to leave and not come back, some slammed the door, some didn't answer the door but shouted that we should leave and if we didn't then they would come down and beat us with a stick. Haha.  Maybe I should have been afraid? I think Russians are mostly bark and little bite. That is my experience with them.  

My high for the week was that we had 24 again at church! Really big numbers. We are having a lot of people come. We are very blessed.  That is even more than last week. That’s 2 weeks in a row of great attendance. I couldn't tell you what it is, but I am glad that I get to be a part of it. We have some great members here and they really strengthen each other more than the missionaries can. I am blessed to be able to be serving here among great people.

This transfer has gone by very quickly.  The missionaries in Artyom will stay the same. I will still be with Elder Siebach and the sisters are staying the same.  However, the Andersons are now officially moved out. We got to spend some time with them today, helping them close up the apartment they were renting and pay the landlord and move some things out of their apartment. I will miss them, they really are a wonderful couple and they really help the people here see that the Gospel works for young people and for old people. The members here only ever see happy young Americans so they think that that’s all there is to this church, when in fact there are wonderful people of every age and every nationality. The Andersons will never be forgotten here in Artyom, they have done a lot of wonderful work here. 

I didn't get the package yet, but I have a Visa trip in 2 weeks and should be getting it then hopefully. Thank you for the love and support, especially the packages. They are a very big plus every time we get one. Every missionary loves to get a package.

I hope you have a great week and I hope you have a chance to spend some of your precious time with those who don't often have special visitors. I know that they will appreciate it.

I love you lots!

Elder Gardner

 

Eating raw pumpkin

It’s always great to hear from you! I am glad to hear that you had a warm day this week :) I was thinking the same thing about us that we have been having pretty warm weather here recently.  When I say we had warm weather I mean that it was nice because you could go out without having the wind hurt too bad as it blew into your face :)

All is well, right now I am eating a raw pumpkin, cut up into small cubes and with sugar poured all over em. Pretty tasty :) We had a good week this week. We had lots of time to talk to people on the streets and to serve people. We haven't been doing lots of service projects but we have had plenty of opportunities to do good deeds daily and that is such a blessing.

There are some days when you go out with a bunch of plans. You have people set up that you’re going to meet with and they agreed to meet. Then the first person you agreed to visit got sick, so you go contacting for an hour and a half. Then the 2nd person doesn't answer their phone and they don't come to the church to meet with you. So you go contacting some more. After that you get ready to have a great English practice and you prepare everything to have a great discussion and you invite a bunch of people and they all agree to come. Then nobody comes. And you go contact some more. On days like those, it really makes all the difference when you see a grandmother and she gives you a big smile even if she is missing some teeth and the ones remaining are made of gold :) Or when you see an older person walking very carefully down a snowy set of stairs and you can come to give a hand and a smile. Those simple acts become such valuable little treasures on days when everything else goes wrong.

 34 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

We had a great Sunday yesterday, 23 people came to church! That’s the most we have had in a long time. It was a good day. Lots of people got up to bear their testimonies and we didn't have any awkward pauses in between people. We have been working hard to get people to be more consistent. It's great because we normally have 15 or so show up. And normally it includes random people that haven't come for a long time and then some regular members who don't come. If only we could get each member to come each Sunday... oooh boy then we would have something great going here :)

Lion :) Rawr

We accidentally visited the hospital at the wrong time this week. We went to go see a lady who had broken her leg and we were bringing her some Sudoku booklets and a magazine. We didn't know, nobody said anything either so we went at the wrong time but then the hospital workers got a bit upset at us. We told them that we weren't Russian and they understood. J  They gave us 3 minutes to give her the books and to get gone. I am glad that they were so patient because we hadn't seen her for over a week.  It was nice to see Galina. Hopefully soon she will be out of the hospital and her leg will be better. She broke it slipping on the ice.
Speaking of falling on the ice, I have fallen 2 times already but they haven't been bad falls. Both really slow. But another time we were walking along this dirt trail at night and I stepped near a metal fence thing sticking out of the ground. I didn't see it and it caught my foot and I ate it. I fell face first and landed really hard on my front hahaha it was so bad it knocked the wind out of me haha. I wish we could have gotten it on video!

Yeah we have a big 60 inch flat screen in our apartment except it doesn't have access to the stations. Well... normally it doesn't have access but we were fiddling around and accidentally figured out how to connect to the satellite. Don't tell anyone! Haha just kidding we don't watch it, even if we wanted to we couldn't. I broke the cable.

We have one investigator right now. We taught the first lesson to a new lady this week but we are letting the sisters teach her because they connect better with her. You know how girls are. :) We do mostly street contacting and tracting and teaching lessons. We haven't had a lot of time to do much else. Those are the big activities each day. Members sometimes help with missionary work but not too often.

I hope you have a good week this week, I don't really have a whole lot of news.

I love you.

Elder Gardner

 

Letter to Cameron.  She asked what do you keep in your pocket:

We still walk the streets every day like in other cities. We see multiple cats every day, at least 8 a day. They are everywhere!

Normally I carry a few small notebooks in my bag along with about 20 pens, family photos, the scriptures, a paper with the words in Russian written down for how to give blessings, a notebook with a bunch of scriptures written in it (a cheat sheet to remember where important verses are), a church magazine, some invitations to our church building, some of those CTR rings and a ward list. I also have my nail clippers, flashlights and sticky notes in a pocket of my bag. Then in my pockets I have a chapstick, flashdrive, camera, wallet, daily planner, and maybe some pieces of gum if I think we will be on the street for a while :)

Fluffy hat and oversized jacket

Hey there. This week was a good week. We had a chance to go to Vladivostok on Tuesday for a zone conference.

I got a letter from the Sutherland family – yeah :)  Please give them a big hug for me!

In the letter from the Sutherlands they wrote "I can imagine you reading this letter right now wearing a big fluffy hat and an oversized jacket."  I was actually wearing both of those things at that time. I had to take a picture  :)

The other days of the week we spent meeting with less-active members, learning about their lives and families. With some less-active members you have to really become their friend before moving into the gospel. People here get pretty weird pretty quick if you say "We have a message about Jesus Christ!". They will shut you down right away.  Sometimes we start with "Hey! We are volunteers here, do you know where any food banks or homeless shelters are?" That piques their interest and then we can move into the gospel "Yeah we are here as missionaries and we are looking for ways to serve people like Jesus taught. Do you believe in Christ?"

This past Sunday we had a big special class in 2nd hour about how we can follow these new goals better. We had members teaching parts of the lesson and it turned out very well. I am so pleased with our members. We have some very special people here. One woman testified about how she used to have problems all the time with her husband and ever since he started taking the missionary lessons they have been fighting less and less. The teachings of Jesus Christ can change people’s hearts. It is true!

The branch is good, lots of people are getting sick and can't make it to church and it is pretty frustrating. People here get sick all the time... like ALL the time. It is a problem. They have very cheap healthcare but for that it goes down in quality. I think that is what Obamacare was supposed to be right? I never really understood that whole concept.  J

I think people accept me as a leader - but while Elder Anderson is still here they still see him as President Anderson because that is what he has been for the past year and a half haha. I don't blame them. I am sure it will even itself out soon enough. Thank you for the leadership advice. I always appreciate it :)

We have a member here named ‘S’  who has been slowly moving away from the church. He has been struggling for a few weeks now but he is doing better! As a matter of fact, he said that he wants to come back to church. He has been talking to a girl in another town farther west and she has been helping him keep the faith. Also, the missionary who baptized ‘S’ did a lot to help him. He specifically mentioned that thanks to them he is starting to come back. It really isn't anything that we did as missionaries. Of course we have been praying for, studying for, and trying to meet with him but we weren't the reason his heart was softened. It is just so great to see him start to believe again.

Don't worry about my weight, I am looking and feeling fine!  :)  This week I made some tasty soup and some crepes, some tasty eggs and also some cookies. I got a new recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies and they are very tasty.  My favorite thing to cook is probably cookies because I normally give them away to people on their birthdays and that makes them happy that someone remembers their birthdays :) I like that.

However, soup is really the way to go, you can throw everything you want and need into it and it’s so simple. Hot water, bouillon cube, taters, pasta, carrots, onions, frozen veggies, chicken chunks, salt and you're in business! It saves fairly well and can be put on top of rice or more noodles or mashed potatoes as a nice gravy. The possibilities are really endless!

The apartment is really nice. A big tv and I have a big queen size bed. Elder Siebach wanted to be on the bunk bed so he gets the top bunk and I am across the room on my queen :) The beds are great! No complaints haha

Our Apartment

The zombie homes are kinda rough, but the more you spend your time in them the more comfortable it becomes. I always keep a flashlight in my bag because you never know what might happen in the day. I have used it a lot on my mission actually!

I didn't feel any earthquake... haha I wish I would have felt it! That would have been cool :) We don't have any missionaries out there for now. We have plenty of work to be doing here for now, our hands are full!

You asked about any good stories from this week?  Hmm... It was Sister Springers birthday this week and we got her a cake and some cookies and chocolate and after church on Sunday the whole branch sang to her and we ate snacks :) It was good. We are planning a Valentine’s day party but it is kinda hard to get people on board with it. Not enough people come to church early enough to plan all together, and not enough people stay until the end of 2nd hour to plan afterwards :) It’s okay, I am sure it will be really great.

Sister Springer's Birthday

I love you all, I know that the Gospel is true. It truly will change the hearts of those who hear it if they will let it. Like what is written in Alma 42:

 22  But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

                23   But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.

 

24  For behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and alsomercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved.

There is a law given and a punishment affixed, but we don't have to answer for that on our own. Mercy claimeth the penitent and if we turn to God with all of our hearts then we will be claimed by mercy at the last day. Repentance. We stop doing the wrong thing and we continue to do what is right. It’s really simple and I know that it works!

Have a great week this week, and when you get a chance you should read one of President Perkinson's favorite chapters. Alma 42.

Thank you for all the support, I love you

Elder Gardner