Howdy

Well another crazy week here that has felt like a year but at the same time, also flown by. So some of the bus drivers this week were having a protest and weren't driving. They were portesting the fact that they need a license to drive, because most of them are illegal and the military police have been doing random stop and searches of vehicles on the streets, which actually last week I was on a bus that got stopped and that was pretty scary, but a different story that I don't  have time for haha! (This story is in last weeks blog)  Anyways it was a dumb protest  that made it difficult for us to get   around but things all worked out for us in the end. We had a service  of probably 3 acres that need to be chopped, basically here we are the lawnmowers with machetes. we probably only got 1 acre done with the whole zone, and I had some pretty crazy blisters. But it was fun. 

This week a son of an inactive member died. he was in ms13 and the rival gang got him outside his house. Basically his funeral took the whole day, and the do funerals very different here! A lot of the gang was there on video calls with other members who couldn't make it, pretty crazy. 

anyways its been a pretty crazy week but I got some awesome pictures!

Love, Elder Gardner

Hope you enjoy these, literally the most exciting pictures of my mission so far. in my belief anyways.

so this was some graffiti by the service we did and I couldn't help but see such a great photo op hahah!

this guy on walked in on us during a lesson and decided to stick around to listen for a while

and this is one of the neighborhood drunks, Efrain. super funny, he talks English and when hes drunk hes always like hey come to my house and talk with me, because I understand you! and then when hes sober he doesn't remember anything and doesn't want anything to do with us. super funny and hes great

Busy Busy Busy ( And a blessing on a bus)

This pic is of our district and a few others, we cooked lunch together today. pretty boring pday today.
haha So this week we had another great service project, and in the typical missionary fashion took on a project that was too big for us and also that we didn't really know how to do. We replaced a door and a door frame. Normally that would be pretty easy, except here the doors are cemented in  when the house is built, so that made it a lot more difficult. We had a member come help us but it still took 7 hours haha. It's amazing how long simple projects take when you don't have the right tools. This project was for an investigator, whose dad died last week after we gave him a blessing. We have lots of great investigators right now who only need to be married! its coming along great though. have a great week everyone and talk to you later!

Love Elder Gardner

To Mom:  Sounds crazy as always. Transfers are on the 18 and my comp should be transferred most likely since he has been in this area 6 months. I'm doing good and it gets better and better as learn more Spanish. Haven't gotten any letters yet (we sent him letters a few weeks before Christmas by Salt Lake City pouch) but I did get my birthday package last week! I opened the mp3 and earplugs but left everything else for now haha. It's so great to have music again! Praying for you and the family always my mother.  Definitely lots of things happening but with the lord it will all work out. Love you and praying for you. 

Love 

Elder Gardner

 To Dad:  sounds crazy dad, praying for you every day and the family and everything. I'm glad the surgery went alright. It was pretty good week since I was kinda in charge of all our visits and everything as part of the training . It was hard but good prep for when my comp leaves. Today our bus got pulled over by the military police, they made everyone get out and searched us. We actually were very lucky and the guy  just passed over us since were missionaries, which was a huge blessing since my comp didn't have his license or residency and would have been held overnight if they checked him. They collected the licences of all the men, checked the numbers and then let us go. It was scary but turned out ok. My comp told me that for every missionary that doesn't have residency yet, the church pays 50 dollars a day. That's pretty crazy, since we don't get residency until a year of being here. But the Lord is watching over us for sure! Love you dad!

Love 

Elder Gardner

2017!

Loving Honduras

Helping with brickwork

Teaching at Catholic Church

What a productive year its been for me! So many great things as I look back on the past year that I've been able to learn and experience. 
So last Monday we went to the mall! A lot of the stores here have 50 percent off the whole store for a few days so we went and saw what we could find. Its funny cause even with half off, a lot of stuff is still more than the normal price in the states so there was not many people there haha. Some of these people can barely afford to eat, let alone shop for things. Crazy. 
On Wednesday we did a service project for a family in the ward. They are building kind of a garage  so we helped them with some of the brick work! It was fun and reminded me of the good old days when I did a little bit of brickwork. How fast things change! We like took off half their roof to do it haha, but the buildings here are very simple so it wasn't even that much. We're helping them again tomorrow with some concrete work. Then we have divisions (splits) for New Years Eve!  Super boring, my comp I got switched too had to go to the hospital to check out some heart pain. We waited 5 hours for just 15 minutes with the doctor, then afterwards visited 2 investigators before it was time to go inside. The power also went out, so even more reason to get home. I think the people used up most of the bombs they had for Christmas because New Years Eve was actually pretty quiet. Looking forward to an even better year this year in the service of the lord!

Love, Elder Gardner

So the pictures are of me at the service project on the roof, me teaching in the Catholic church here,( with nobody to listen to me unfortunately) and then also of my facebook worthy photo of me in Honduras. Living the dream!

Week of Feasts

What a great Christmas out here in Honduras.  People more celebrate Christmas Eve than Christmas, and 12 am Christmas morning we were awoken by tons of fireworks going off. I'm going to record it for New Years, cause I guess they like it even more. Pretty crazy but I was able to sleep, unlike my comp haha. I had my 8 week meeting last Tuesday, great to see my CCM pals again. A peaceful, different Christmas for sure with lots of food! Everyone we visited gave us a huge plate of food so that was kinda painful but I survived. Some of the members gave some some small gifts that were super nice. Got a cool tie from President.  A great Christmas as I focused more on the Savior than other things. Hope everyone is safe and also enjoyed their Christmas

"there is more to life than increasing its speed"

love,

Elder Gardner

I know you've seen cows before, but have you ever seen a Honduran cow? I think not.