YOUR NEWEST NONTEENAGER...

 

A sweet member of the ward sent this to the family early on Daniel's birthday

For all of those people who are afraid of teenagers and the lack of maturity they bring, no worries with me anymore! I've turned a new leaf and am ready to take on the world now! You can say that being 20, and a man, I basically know everything about the stock market, real estate, and how to fix the sprinklers. I'm also 1 birthday closer to my golden birthday here in 7 years! (You know that my 27th bday is going to be the best thing ever. just you wait). But yep, I am now 20!! And to make me feel my age, my back has been killing me the past few days especially yesterday! I found at points I had an electric massager on it or even my companions walking on it! (Is that kosher? @athletictrainingAimee?)

BUT there is nothing like fasting and going to church with someone we are teaching on my birthday! It was just the best combination!! Our friend Noah came to church with us and he has progressed A LOT since the last time we have met with him. He went from "BAPTIZE ME" to "I'm staying with my church and won't ever be baptized in your church." to now he is gaining a more solid testimony and coming to church and becoming friends with the members! It's a miracle truly! Hopefully we can see him enter the waters of baptism this upcoming month!

As for anything exciting this week, I guess we had something scary happen. Our neighbor’s daughter ran away with a boy and they hadn't seen her for a week. We had cops asking information about her which is kinda hard when we don't ever leave the house. There were dogs and lots of cops all around! After about 1 1/2 weeks of her running away she was found and she is back all safe! I felt kinda cool though like I was in a movie and was about to get a call in the middle of the night to go outside to a Porche awaiting me so that I could solve the case or something. Good thing I can still dream while in quarantine!!!

The progress of our self-isolation isn't really moving forward... We can now start meeting with most of the ward on Sunday's which is AMAZING, but Elder Christofferson is over this part of the country and is getting all missionaries to commit to living more consecrated and strict rules of quarantine. So that is fun! I guess to spice things up my companion Elder Norton and I are going to start dance classes in our apartment to add in some comp unity and exercise in the morning. We'll definitely send the finished result ;)

Thank you everyone for all of the bday wishes! It truly takes a village to raise a half-decent young man haha. As cliché as it may sound, thank you all for making me who I am today! I'm full of love for all of you guys!

<3Elder Gardanier

 

A Week Full of Miracles

 

Follow-up from last week. Vickie Taylor didn't end up getting baptized on Sunday because she just got super busy with her job and we couldn't get in contact with her. When we finally did she responded it was too late. She said she still wanted to get baptized so we pushed it to this next week for the 27th. A birthday baptism woot!!! Pray that she actually responds to us and gets ready for her baptism then!

This email might be boring to some if you're expecting a crazy cool funny experience but let me just forewarn you that it's much better! It's full of miracles! So bear with me here...;)

1. A guy I found on Facebook a few weeks ago started out SUPER crass and always dropping the f-bomb, etc. But we stayed consistent and he stayed willing to try. This past week we met up real quick to give him a Book of Mormon and he is anxious to learn! He is 19 and literally went from atheist to learning about God and knowing He is our creator and Father in Heaven. So if he doesn't initially believe in the church or gets confused with the anti he's recently gotten into, I consider that a win! As long as Heavenly Father is getting the credit then Walter will always have God's influence on him to choose the right! 

2. We were calling in area book and found this guy Josh Smith. He is SO SICK. He is initially meeting with the missionaries to discuss religion because he is just curious. However, this past week he said that after receiving the Book of Mormon he was curious about it and literally had a natural draw to open up to Moroni. 

What 

TALKA BOUT THE SPIRIT RIGHT? I kinda smirked and was like "let me tell you why you felt drawn there..." Then we opened up to Moroni 10:4-5 and read Moroni's promise. He was super sincere and said that he would pray about the Book of Mormon! He is amazing and I'm praying he gets an answer!

3. We set a goal to find 3 new people this week which was already a HUGE stretch for me but with consistent work and lots of prayers and faith in Christ, we discovered the FAITH TO REAP and ended finding 5 new people to teach...here is a cool experience:

My zone has a goal to find 100 new people to teach for the next 6 weeks. That is about 20 people every week since we started a week late. On Sunday we had only found about 9 as a zone and the STLs sent out a text to everyone to say a pray RIGHT NOW and find someone new. I mean, isn't that always my goal? If I could just "choose" to find a new person I would! Well we obeyed and said a prayer and we had 5 mins left until lunch. I got up just thinking "I haven't taken a break yet today, I'll just start making my lunch." But then I thought, "How can God work miracles through me if I'm not working?" Well we called 2 people and literally at 11:59 I had a thought to call this one guy Isaiah who we had called before but our schedules weren't lining up. He answered, we began to talk, and 30 mins later we taught him about the Book of Mormon and addressed some of his concerns regarding polygamy, eternal marriage, the bible, etc. He opened up about his desire to stop drinking and his want to reestablish his life better. He has been lonely during quarantine and needs some more purpose. HE'S GOLDEN!!

Anyways...my companions and I have been blessed this week! There was a 3-day period where we had 29 lessons total and about 17 of them were with nonmembers! The work is moving forward here!!

Thanks for making it this far;) u the real champ

Love you guys!

Elder Gardanier!!!

 

Cockroach Slayer

I'm officially moved down to Hampton and it's a whole new world down here! This apartment is "different" than my last hahaha. I figured out that my washing machine needs a timer set on my phone or else it will keep washing and restarting etc until I come cancel the wash! I forgot about my clothes the other day I think they went through the wash cycle at least 5 times throughout the day! Let’s say those clothes are squeaky clean now!! We also spent the first few days cleaning this place to the bone! The amount of cockroaches I've killed and spotted are way past my ability to count! There is a fun little stench too of marijuana coming from our neighbors every night which gives me some gnarly headaches but I figure I'll get used to it? (Sadly...)

I also had transfers this week and dropped off Elder Pehrson and said bye and he flew home to Arizona! I also got to see my buddy Elder Seegmiller from home and that was such a miracle! We snapped a few pics and headed back off to Hampton with my two new companions! 

We've seen miracle after miracle down here! We have a baptism coming up this next Sunday, Vickie Taylor, and based off of our first meeting she seems really cool and excited for her baptism! We also have called a lot of area book and seen miracles happening there. In fact, here is a quick one:

We were calling our area book and got in contact with Karin. She said she would be willing to meet with us on Sunday and we got a member there too! She mentioned how she went to our church with the Sister missionaries a while back and liked it a lot but hasn't been able to find it again since they left a year ago. So, she resulted to going to another church 30 mins away and boy you should've seen how excited she got when we told her there is a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints a block away from her house! She is excited to keep learning and we are seeing some really promising people down here!

Take care and let me know how you #HearHim! I'm anxious to know what YOU are doing to be diligent and consistent in hearing the voice of the Lord!!

Love you all!

Elder Gardanier

Daniel's two new comps in Hampton
  

Magic in the Hampton's

Yes. It's true. I am on the move again and will be transferred down to Hampton with my 2 new companions Elder Fry and Norton...(Elder Norton actually went to AF so it's gonna be hard to get over this rivalry ;). But President thought it would be best to have the Zone Leaders in Hampton so I'm excited to stay in the same zone but a different home!

I honestly don't know where to start. This week was full of miracles. The area I am in now (Lightfoot) has been infamous for not getting new people to teach the past 2 transfers. It’s been super frustrating and no matter what we did, it followed the same pattern week after week. Well we were SUPER determined and decided to give it our all and put everything on the table to see new people want to be taught! Well God heard our prayers and blessed us with not 1, not 2, but 3 new people to teach! 2 of those people came to the church for a tour and the other already had a Book of Mormon and is reading it now! Here are some miracles stories regarding them...

1. Robert. He is the man. He has a fractured foot but still came out to the church for a lesson and then to play the piano with us too! We toured it and he had great questions. We then played the piano and he invited me to improvise on the top and I got so scared haha. Well we recorded it and he was so surprised that I did "well" that he begged for us to meet again! Well we ended up meeting at his house a few days later and he kept saying what a blessing we've been in his life! He even opened up regarding our conversations on Facebook and said something along these lines, "Now Elder Gardanier, I'm so excited that we are friends! To be honest, when we started talking you were really pushing for a zoom call or Facebook video chat and I almost said to you that I'm not interested in joining your church...however, I felt something inside of me just to see from your perspective. As I have done that I have become so admirable and impressed with who you are and how you hold yourself. I can see with a greater perspective now and am excited to learn!" We even gave Robert a blessing because his foot has been hurting really bad and he was supposed to have a show on Sunday and it was hurting. He slowly got better and accredited that to the blessing!

2. Steve. I met this guy on Facebook too and just kept constant and consistent contact with him throughout the week. We planned a day to meet at the church AND HE CAME! We showed him around and taught the restoration. He explained how he never has been a member of just one religion and has been interested in becoming one recently. He loves the emphasis on families and that baptism brings COMPLETE repentance. He is amazing and we loved working with him.

While these people are such amazing miracles, I know that God will take care of them as I go off to Hampton! I've already started seeing the miracles coming from that area and am anxious to start serving this next transfer! 

Let me know what I can do for you guys!! Love you all!

Elder Gardanier

you know where I going I'M DANCIN' preachin' in the Hamptons!!

 

Two Hands

I'm starting to get a little nervous because I can now count only on two hands how many months left until I return home...officially this time ;) 

To celebrate my 14 month mark, we met up with this Professional Pianist, Robert, at his church to talk and get to know each other personally (and share a quick thought!). As we were walking into his church he came around the corner and for some reason it scared me so badly and I jumped back so hard hahaha. He felt bad to scare me but I guess that is what happens after having another companionship drive us there who aren't the most...skilled drivers? Let’s just say we were very thankful to get our car back from State Inspections the next day!!!!

But Robert is not-even-funny talented on the piano. He went to Julliard and has been playing piano and writing songs and so many amazing things. He showed us something he has been doing and it's cool to learn from a professional! He was so gracious and nice to us. It was this cool "Ammon and King Lamoni" moment...Robert has a fractured foot and that has delayed our appointment the past few days, but instead of complaining, we sent him daily texts to check up on him and he thought that was the most sincere thing ever! He said to me, "You feel like an old friend to me!" So whatever the outcome that happens, I am happy that he was felt loved by me! That is my goal...CHARITY!

We are meeting with him again on Tuesday (this time at our church) and we will see how it goes there! He couldn't stop telling his other friend about my companion and I and how much he admires how the church has motivated a youthful group to share the gospel across the world! It's pretty amazing you could say!

Other than that...my comp and I had our car get a state inspection that took the whole day and that turned out to be our busiest day...good thing we took it to a place that was 30 mins away because the closest car shops have been 0 help! We had to mooch off the elders to chauffeur us around and sacrifice so much. Not gonna lie, I kinda loved it too much at the end of the day and wished our car could stay another day in the shop! I love me a good ol' chauffeur!!

Take care this week! Love you all

Elder Gardanier