Last P-Day

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

Ready to escape the MTC

Hey! Last week was a really boring week! Sorry for not saying much:(  I will have a ton of stuff to tell you in 2 weeks!  I had a cold for a couple days, and then I got Pink Eye!  WOOHOO!  It wasn't too fun, kinda icky. But I got to leave campus to go to the pharmacy.   I got some eye drops and all is well now.  But because of my cold, I had a bad cough and couldn't sing in church.  It is alright and I will sing this upcoming week.  I am learning here but I would learn so much more if I could just escape the MTC. 

 

We should get travel information this upcoming Friday!   We have 12 days till we fly out! Monday the 29th!  We are definitely counting down the days. We are missing conference by a week.  It is quite a shame.  It is rough being so close but so far and not really sure how this whole thing is gonna work! 

 

Steak Fries!  Double order.  :)

 

I don't know how effective I will be the first few months of my mission but I am sure it will all work out for the best.  I am eating as much of the MTC food as I can stand.  I wanna get a bit more fat because I probably will not want to eat much the first couple days of Russia.  That borsch looks like blood soup... gross..

On Monday we had a Skype call/lesson with a native Russian! It was an бабушка (older lady).  Her name is Elena:) She was very sweet but she talked quickly and I struggled to understand everything she said.  But, it was really cool. We are learning more and more grammar rules each day. Hopefully I can keep them all straight in my head.

We haven't gotten any rain here but I hope we can get some before we leave to the Motherland. 

Game: How full will your cup be when you flip it over.

 

I am glad to hear that you guys went to help the Catholic church. Oh man, you guys have a lot of rain! I am super jealous.  In all the time I went to DV I don't think they cancelled it once.   Now Cameron might get it twice! No fair.

How was riding the Ninja? Everything works fine? I wish I could go riding again.  I always hear motorcycles riding around and past the MTC. It makes me miss it.

That is so cool that Dad’s office made the switch to the cloud! How is that going? All smooth? Send my best wishes to the folks at the office haha I feel like I am almost part of the team! Hopefully one day I can be.

We had Richard G. Scott visit us last night! He spoke a lot about prayer. Way cool! But next Tuesday we are supposed to be getting a bigger guy coming to talk! Maybe Tommy M. I don't know. 

I saw Megan today in front of the Temple! I didn't know if I could hug her, so I didn't haha.

I am glad Megan sent you the video she took! I have the translation for that if you would like:)

"Hey there my family! How are you? My name is Elder Gardner and I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ. I know this Church is true. I know the temple is the most beautiful building. I love this weather, it is really good weather. I know when I pray to God, He listens to me. He knows me. He knows us all. He loves us. Like... A lot a lot. I love you all. I love you Mom and Dad and Cameron and Megan. I am a little silly but I know this church is true! I love you! Bye Bye".

I realize that my testimony jumps around quite a bit but it is alright:) I never know what to say when people say "Hey! Speak Russian at me" 

 

Me and my companion Elder Hansen.

I don't think I need anything before I leave for Russia. I have a bunch of food, but Ramen is always welcome:)  The only problem is I don't have a bowl or fork so that would also be required:)  Gummy bears are always wanted. There is one elder in our district who eats all my gummy bears! Not nice! But he speaks sign language so he is pretty cool:)  I can't really think of anything that I want but anything you think of is appreciated:)

The Church is true and I Love You,

удачи.

Старейшина Гарднер

Elder Gardner

Another great week

We had a great week!   We should be getting our travel plans this Friday. Somebody said we would be flying to Cali, then South Korea, then Vladivostok from there. I will let you know when I get the official papers.  No news on whether or not our Visas have come in.  Should be good! I don't know what to think just yet :)

 That rainy Monday sounds so crazy! I wish I could've driven the jeep through the mud! Would've been too much fun:)!! We had a ton of rain here yesterday, too, but not enough to flood the streets!  Lots of fun! It’s a nice change of pace from the AZ heat. I saw Cameron playing in the water on the news clip they sent me! That is too funny:) That is way sad to hear about the Catholic church that got flooded! Maybe there could be a service project to go help them out!

I am sure President Rogers is gonna do great as our new Stake President! I love him, he always gives out fist bumps! Sweet!

I’m excited that Chandler is putting his mission papers in.  I can’t wait to hear where he gets called!  That is way exciting.

Thanks for the care package.  I tried to hide them.  :)

 

That is so cool that you got your Advanced Diver Certification! I am so jealous. How were the wetsuits? I hope to never have to wear them again.  Sounds like a great experience though! I am glad you guys got the wonderful opportunity to dive in Lake Pleasant! It was anything BUT pleasant! haha Maybe when I get back we can get Megan and me certified in Australia! I wanna go there and dive the Great Barrier Reef. 

So last Wednesday, right after I got to dinner, I saw Elder Wimmer! I was talking to some guy going to China.  Then Elder Wimmer came up and started talking to the Chinese Elder. I looked away, looked back and saw “Wimmer” on his tag! I totally interrupted their conversation, I said "Hey! Hey! Elder Wimmer! My mom knows your mom!!" I was way pumped, all excited! I finally saw the infamous Elder Wimmer! He was totally confused, kinda like he could care less... haha this was so cool to me but he didn't even care.

I also ripped my pants! haha I was hackey-sackey-ing and went up to kick it... ripped right open in the crotch. Don't worry, I sewed it back up using the sewing kit from Mission Prep Class. Thanks Worthen Family!  

Not much has happened other than that! Still studying:)  I wish I had more to say.  Can't wait to get out there! Love you all so much! This Church is true,

 

Старейшина Гарднер

Elder Gardner

Halfway through the MTC!

Halfway through the MTC!  That is a weird thought.

I am now capable of saying most simple phrases necessary in here. I feel so old! The missionaries going to Italy next door to us got here 2 weeks after us and they are leaving before we do, it is interesting. 

 

We got the package with sparkling cider and we had a party.   Today is my roommate's birthday so we had a Вечеринка last night:)   (You say it like, Vecherinka. It means a party). He just turned 19 and he got a yoyo for his birthday. 

Party Time

 

The food the first couple of weeks seemed great! 3 square meals a day, as many helpings as you would like! But nowadays, I don't see it the same way. The food is definitely going downhill and I am starting to appreciate these care packages more and more! They are a life saver. I have gained like 10 pounds. But, I am up to 15 slow controlled pull-ups. Gotta keep going though. 

I love all your www.DearElder.com notes! They make my day:) Megan sent me a couple shirts, some candy and a bunch of silly notes from her friends. I can't really think of what I need right now but everything is welcome! I love you all! 

The District

 

I am actually enjoying the language! That might sound weird but I think it is fun:) I have had a bunch of people say to me "Elder Gardner, how do you know so much? I never see you studying!"  Now don't take that the wrong way! I do study, but I think they are just jealous because it is coming easier to me than them. I am so blessed to not struggle with it.  The language isn't all too hard. It makes a lot of sense once you get the basics down.

Russian has 6 cases. Nominative Case. Accusative Case. Genitive Case. Prepositional Case. Dative Case. Instrumental Case. Nominative is just your basic infinitive form of a verb (I.E. To run, To swim, to eat).   Accusative case is for direct objects. Genitive case is if your subject is "Of" something (Book of Mormon).  Prepositional is easy:) Dative case is you are saying something like "I like the book". In Russian you say "At me is pleasing the book".  Instrumental is if you are doing an action with something. All of it is super exciting. I hope I said all of those cases correctly! Anyways, enough of all that fun language stuff.

 

This week was a solid learning week! We had a great devotional last night about after converts in the church get baptized we can't let them fall away. We need to remember that there are many lost sheep - but they are not black sheep. That was pretty powerful to me.  I want to help people and bring them to remembrance of how amazing Christ is, but I am stuck here! I gotta wait another month to do that.   

Chair fighting....???

 

On another note, I just noticed something. I guess it hasn't really occurred to me before but I just realized that I hate it when the conductor of the sacrament hymns is off. We were singing some hymn, and I do not remember the time signature but let's say it was in 4/4. The conductor was (and I am not exaggerating this) conducting probably a 7/4. She had no clue what she was doing. Haha   I just had to close my eyes and sing because I was so frustrated trying to make sense of what she was doing! 

Do you remember that I have been asked to sing a special musical number in a few weeks? It is not this Sunday but the next Sunday. There is a sister in our district who has a Masters Degree in Piano Performance and she is helping me.  My companion is also going to sing with me! We are doing a mash-up of hymns. The first half of the song is "Behold, the Great Redeemer Die". Then we go into a bridge/piano solo/key change. Yep! That's right! Moving up 2 keys and finishing with "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and some sweet harmonies in there:)  I am way pumped to sing this.  It will be so good! I will try to record some of our practices for you. 

It is so much fun being here in the MTC! The teachers are all so inspirational and I can't wait to go out there and do some work! I love you all! I think about you all so much:) 

The Church is true and I Love You.

Старейшина Гарднер

Elder Gardner

Week 4 at the MTC

I love the DearElder notes! My companion is the District Leader so I always go with him to get the mail:) He never misses a day! Here, letters are kinda like a sign of status or whatever you wanna call it.  Some people get letters all the time and everyone else gets super jealous! Keep em coming! Maybe one day you could send me 10 little 1 sentence letters just so it looks like I am really popular;) and I don't know how DearElder works but if you wanted you could put it up on the blog so other people could send me stuff!  ( MOM NOTE:  If you send him a letter via dearelder.com, he'll get it that same day.  You just need his unit number, which is #158 and his ship-out date is Oct 1).

His companion fell asleep on his spiral bound notebook.

That restructuring of our Bishopric sounds really cool! I love Bro Case and Brugman. I know they are gonna kill it (in the best possible sense of the word). 

 

Got their "real" Russian name tags this week

Meeting Evan Johnson's Russian grandma at church sounds super amazing! I would love to meet her:) I was actually just wondering about Evan! Do you know how he is doing? I haven't heard from anybody what is going on:( 

I can't type Russian very well because we don't have a Cyrillic keyboard.  I am glad you got to meet her! She sounds so wonderful:) I am excited to continue the good work in Russia! I hope I can use some of my musical abilities to further the work.

Speaking of musical abilities, I am supposed to prepare a special musical number for Sacrament meeting in 2 weeks. I have no clue what I am gonna do! I am a little nervous but I will figure something out. I should have practiced the piano more like Sister Bowen told me to... :p

 I also have to play an opening hymn for our Priesthood meetings next Sunday! I have probably 5 Hymns that I could play, but that is in English... The Russian Hymn book has some hymns that aren't in the English version. They have some extra notes in some places to accommodate the longer and more complicated Russian translations. I also don't know which hymns are which. I have to just pick a hymn, start playing it, and hope that I recognize it. It is a blast haha but it is rough.

Just a couple quick little thoughts I had this week:

I sang "I am a Child of God" with Cameron in Sacrament meeting before I left, when I get back I wanna sing it with Megan... In Russian.

I successfully solved a Rubik's Cube in 1 minute and 44 seconds. The record is 1 minute 40 seconds! haha so close!

 

What else are you going to do with a giant can of 100 colored pencils?

At first I didn't really like this super short hair cut, but now I love it! it never gets messed up and I get to use so much less shampoo!

We met our Branch President this last week. His name is President Peer. He speaks 11 different languages fluently.  His criteria for being fluent are as follows:

-Study it in a formal setting (such as a school or class, with a teacher to monitor progress)

-Give a presentation in that language (such as a lecture or speech)

-Completely and accurately translate a piece of literature in that language.

He is so smart and he is funny, super nice, and everybody here wishes to grow up and be like him. He was in England for our first couple of weeks. He was being honored by Oxford and got the opportunity to present some of his texts to the big smart people over there:p Crazy!!

Ryan thought this chair was smiling, so he added the rest of the face with chalk.

We had a speaker during our Sunday night devotional, his name was Stephen B. Allen. He used to be the Tempe, Arizona mission president! Super cool:)

I was asked to give the blessing on the sacrament this week! Super scary... I had to do it in Russian and my heart beat was like a million beats per minute. 

I sang in the choir this week and I love choir, I really do. It was my second favorite class in high school (ceramics was by far my number one). Even though I love singing, this choir was bad:( I sang the bass part with my companion and we sang "Jesus Once of Humble Birth". There was this really pretty part of the song, it got super intense and was the climax of the song. The bass section has this conflict/resolution where we were supposed to hold the conflicting note for a whole measure and the resolution would've been really beautiful... but the entire bass section skipped it and resolved early. So frustrating! haha I probably sound nerdy but it really bugged me:) I miss singing with DeValk in Jazz Mad, he was so much fun:)

 

They have not given us very much information about the culture of Russia. We ask our teachers, who are all return missionaries from Russia, about the culture but they don't say much. They told us it is veryyyyy impolite to cross your legs or put a foot up on your knee when you sit. The shoe is the dirtiest part of a person because you're always walking around in the dirt. To show someone your shoe is super bad! They take off their shoes and put on socks or booties when they enter someone's home. I had no clue! That's about it for now but I will let you know the more I find out!

Some people in my district have seen the Saratov Approach. They said it was really good but kinda scary too:)

I loved the care package you sent me! It was so cool! I am currently eating a PopTart:))  I love it all!  The chocolate didn't melt and I am happy to be chowing down all the time. Thanks to that mini basketball, my skills have improved immensely! Thanks!  

I am glad to hear Cameron and Carson fixed the potato gun but they now have to make a giant potato gun that shoots soccer balls or something! That would be SWEET!

 

 That's about all I have for this week:) We keep studying and learning, it isn't getting much easier but we can now converse pretty well with our teachers. Thursdays are our days to only speak Russian! No English at all on Thursdays:) Wish me luck! I miss you all! Can't wait to see you soon!

The Church is true, and I Love You

 

Love,

Старейшина Гарднер

Elder Gardner

MTC Week 3

Thanks for sending the care package.  I ate the chocolate anyways:) It was perfectly good all melted! I am loving the MTC. I weighed myself and I lost 5 pounds... how I did that.. I still do not know.. I eat big meals every meal. I don't even work out very hard. Nevertheless I am happy!

I sang in the choir this week and it was super cool! It reminded me of being back in choir with DeValk. It was like being in Acap. The one with all the immature sophomores and juniors. Not Jazz Mad. Anyways, when I was at the Tuesday night devotional last night, we had the opportunity to hear from the President of the Relief Society. I forgot her name but she gave an enthralling talk about missionary work and it got my way pumped to go out! I wanna go out now but I probably couldn't make it a day:) I have 6-7 more weeks here before they kick me out.

  

 As I was sitting there, the congregation was singing some prelude songs. I was singing the bass line (naturally) and the kid sitting next to me (Elder Herring) turns and asks if I was in choir. I tell him yes and he said he was in choir too at Red Mountain High School. Red Mountain isn't too far from us, so I asked him if he ever sang in a regional choir, and he said yes! Turns out, Elder Herring was in the Regional Choir that I was in, my junior year when Charles Bruffy was our conductor! Craziest thing, I never would have guessed.  What a small world.

 

 All the missionaries learning Russian say that there is a wall around week 3. You get super discouraged with the language and hate yourself because you can't understand anything and that it is such a humbling experience... I haven't hit that wall, nor can I see that wall in the foreseeable future! I am feeling really solid with the language and I am learning on average 20 new words a day. I don't say this to brag, I say this because I believe God has blessed me with the ability to learn this language. I have been praying to have the Gift of Tongues every night with my companion. I am so glad to not be struggling with it! It's truly a blessing to me.

  

My companion on the other hand, Elder Hansen, is not in the same boat. He is struggling a bit, but he is working so hard! He reads the Book of Mormon every night while doing push-ups, does pull-ups counting in Russian, he gets extra help from the teachers during free time. He is working so hard and it really is an inspiration to me. He is such a hard worker I want to be just like him. He comes from a family of 11 kids. 6 chocolate and 5 vanilla as he likes to say:) They have adopted 6 kids and Elder Hansen has named 3 of them! He is such a great missionary I am extremely blessed to be put with him.

 

I met another elder named Elder Daniel Rojas (I think that is correct). He says he went to Desert Ridge with Courtney and Ashley! You will have to tell them he says hi. I am up to 10 pull-ups this week. Doing more and more each night is an analogy for learning Russian.  You can't just do it all at once, but a slow and steady climb to the top is the way to go.

 

Got a haircut about 20 minutes ago and it is super duper short! just gotta give it some time. The lady mentioned as she was cutting, how fluffy and thick my hair is:) hahaha they always say that.

 

Thank you so much for the Twisty Bag Ties! That was so funny dumping those out and getting weird looks from my district! They had no clue why I received plastic clippy things but I knew right away:) My flip flops are fine now:) The clip and tape fix is holding up, but I will let you know if I have any other needs!

 

It was cool reading Elder Woods' blog! I will have to stay caught up with his adventures.

 

I miss you all so much! I will be back in 2 short years. The church is true and I love you

 

Love always,

Старейшина Гарднер

Elder Gardner

 

Week 2 at the MTC

Hey! All is well in Utah! Still learning a lot, still gaining weight:) We have plenty of boy time over here! maybe even too much haha we have to buckle down.

 

           

          The melted chocolate

Only 7 more weeks here. 2 weeks down, they flew by so fast!! I will send you another letter in a little bit of how we did the door trick.

 

I am so sorry for you though, now you gotta wake up so early! It’s rough getting up that early but I love those early morning dive practices. I am so sorry about dad's car.  That is so stupid...and the leaks sound icky :(   I’m sorry about that, it must smell so bad.

 

We heard yesterday that Robin Williams died and we had a party celebrating his life. We had chips, salsa, brownies, cookies and Dr. Pepper! It was a blast. Okay... maybe it wasn't to celebrate his life but he was our excuse so it all worked out:) I am going to check out that blog in a little bit! Sounds great, except for the girly part J  I am a manly man so I should have camouflage or something on there.  And as dad knows, it’s alright if we are a little Pinterest-y. After all, we are the Pinterest boys! Haha

 

Down at the bottom of the letter you wrote to me you mentioned you loved me more than the real estate agent! hahaha I totally forgot about that! That’s so cute. :)

 

I got the goodies in the mail today! I am currently wearing the ring, gonna eat a cookie or two... or all of them.  But I regret to inform you the chocolate goodies were melted.  I opened up the box and my roommates looked in and got really disgusted! They had no clue what you sent me:.  Don’t worry, the bags were tied shut and nothing spilled. I am still going to eat the chocolate goodies - I will just need a fork and knife to do so:)  The Pringles cans opened up a little and one cookie broke, nevertheless it will be consumed.  The cans look fabulous! They say CTR on them and I think that is so cool! It reminds me of our lesson yesterday after our devotional. Our teacher says to us "so normally CTR stands for Choose The Right. But for each of you it should mean something more important. Does anybody know what that would be? and without missing a beat I say "Convert The Russians". She thought it was the funniest thing.  But it actually stands for Current Temple Recommend. Even though we may not have the opportunity to always attend the temple we should still always have one.

 

On another note those pictures of Tyler look so cool! I am jealous! I wanna go out and start serving right now! But I know I am not anywhere close to where I need to be with Russian to head out yet.  

 

I saw Calvin all over the MTC but I didn't get a chance to say bye before he headed out.

 

Anyways I love the inspirational quotes you send me:) I use them in my lessons all the time!

 

There is a scale here in the gym and I weighed myself, I have gained 5 pounds so far.  I heard from our teacher that Russian missionaries come back skinny so I gotta gain while I can!

 

We went to the temple these past two weeks. Did you know the Temple is 3 stories high and has a basement? And in the basement they serve breakfast! I need to go get some breakfast there some time .

 

I learned a new version of tic-tac-toe this week. We call it ultimate tic-tac-toe. You set up a big board like a regular game but instead of x's and o's in the spaces, you put smaller tic-tac-toe boards it’s pretty crazy. 

 

I finished the gummy bears and all the candy bars I came with. I shared the bears because everybody LOVED them and i gave a couple candy bars away. I offered to people but they are all watching their figures. They are such girls. I would bring a candy bar with me to gym every day and get silly looks eating my snickers after an intense game of 4 square. The new missionaries come in every Wednesday and last week I met an elder named Jacob Biers. He apparently lives in Thatcher and is good buddies with Josh and Rikki.  I don’t have either of their emails so I can't tell them but it’s fun anyways.

 

Tonight is our first lessons without any language notes. its scary! We have to give a 20 minute lesson to a native Russian speaker only using a bible and PMG. (Preach my Gospel). Wish us luck!

 

  

 

I love you all! I miss you so much!

 

The Church is True and I love you!!