November 26,2018 Sean's Baptism

This week was great! We had Sean's Baptism and Conformation and the spirit was so strong! We can see the change in Sean as he has lived the gospel and progressed to where he is at today even in this short time. Some other awesome and interesting things happened this week. Sunday, we were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting. We weren't given a topic and so we spoke on whatever we wanted. I decided to speak on member examples. There is a great scripture in 2 

Nephi Chapter 26 which reads:

       

       23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.

33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

I shared how the gospel is for everyone. Christ invites all to come unto him and as Members we need to be an example of Christ like love to members and especially nonmembers. Our example is what invites the sprit into the meetings we have and helps people feel welcome. Christ set the perfect example and we can better follow that example by reaching out to new faces or people who are in need. By sharing our time and talents to bless others and become their friends. 

On Friday, we had a good few hours to find some new people and we found a guy named Jonathan. We invited him to church and he said he might try it out and then he showed up! It was awesome. After Sacrament, a lot of the members actually reached out to him and introduced themselves. It was great. We had a lesson later that evening with him and he accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 15th of December. He is super awesome! 

We had a good Thanksgiving and ate a lot of food. We spent time with members and some less active people. It was a great time to be grateful for all that each of us have. I am grateful for all the blessings I have and the learning and growth that happens each day as I focus more on the Savior and his example. I challenge each of you to try a little harder to be a little better and follow Christ's example in all that you do. Have a wonderful week! 

Elder Gardner Sleeping

Elder Gardner, Sean, Elder Jensen, Elder Elgaaen

Wake up Elder Gardner

November 19,2018 Weekly

This week has been really good. We had a really horrible interview with Tanisha for her baptism and it was super sad. The person interviewing her took over 90 minutes and was making up his own interview! Then he said that we should wait a week for the baptism which was super pointless so we called the mission president and he said the baptism was still good for this Saturday and the person interviewing was still learning. Haha 

Transfers went okay. We had a super long drive up to Jesup and the area is pretty small. There is a lot of inactive members and not lots of people who are super willing to be involved but we are working on improving that. We have a person on date for this Saturday named Sean. He is super elect and we are excited to Baptize him. He will be a super awesome member. 

Something that is unique about this area is we have a member who owns a Gym and he let's us work out there in the mornings for free and we really enjoy it! When your at a gym, you have a greater determination to actually work out so that is a huge plus. 

Our first full day in the area, we went finding and found 3 super awesome people within 1 hr. It was cool to see how making the effort to talk with everyone really brings blessings. We were able to accomplish a lot and find some good people to work with. 

On Saturday Tanisha did get baptized and from what I heard, the service was good and there was a lot that was accomplished. I am excited to keep up with her and see her continue to progress in the gospel and experience more blessings. This week was all in all great and full of lots of learning and fun. I love my companions and my new area. I hope you all can have an awesome week and have lots of great experiences and continue to apply the gospel every day and see so many blessings come into your life. Have a great week!

Cool car of a member's son

Elder Jensen

Ever Sleeping Elder Gardner

Lifting Iron at a member's gym!

November 12,2018 Jesup Georgia

NEW ADDRESS: 285 S. 6th St Jesup GA 31545 Apt 4

This week was an eventful week! To start, we had transfer calls and I will be getting transferred to Jesup Georgia. I will be in a trio with 2 district leaders as my companions who are both going home after this next transfer. The next transfer will also only be 5 weeks so the elders don't go home on Christmas Eve. Elder Adair will be training a new missionary and so I have to go to the transfer building and be there by 8:30 and it is a 2 hour drive. Then Jesup is the furthest area from that in the mission. So next week will be a crazy week!

We met some super interesting people as well this past week. One guy was named Dr. Steven Bivins. We walked up to him on the street and he is a local pastor of a church. He talked with us for a good while and asked us if we would be on a talk show over the radio on some Sunday. We told him we would look into it. He gave us some other people who we could see which is always good. So after we went down the street and talked with a lady named Jackie. She was super awesome and after everything we said, she would say umhum and draw it out really long. It was super funny. She told us that we should invest in stocks and only share the gospel online and not to people who have grown up in other faiths because they can't be helped. She then referred us to a house around the corner to a bishop. We knocked on this guy's door and he said his name was Bishop T. Wilson. He invited us in and showed us how he has a online ministry over Facebook and how he shares spiritual messages on there. It was fun talking with him and it really motivated us to use Facebook more.

Over Facebook, we got to teach a few lessons. It was super powerful teaching over Facebook Messenger because it really allows us to say exactly what needs to be said and review and ask inspired questions. Also it helps the people we are understanding clearly receive the message and we have seen it be a super effective way to teach the gospel. Another cool thing is we add members into the chat and then they can see the progress of our people and comment and share testimony of how they have seen the gospel bless their lives. Technology is amazing! 

One sad thing but super awesome thing this week that is happening is we have a baptism for this Saturday for Tanisha! She is so awesome and is super ready to get baptized! The sad part is that I will be gone for the Baptism. It has been a great blessing being a part of her conversion process and seeing the blessings the gospel have brought her so far in her life and I look forward to her seeing more blessings later on! 

One scripture that stuck out to me this week in my study was in 2 Nephi 7. Jacob is talking to the people about some prophecies from Isaiah and in verses 10 and 11 he says, 

10: Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? 

11: Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. 

This scripture asks the question if you obey the commandments, will you walk in darkness? The next scripture made me notice that as we are obedient, we will be a source of light which we can follow. We will have the spirit within us and it will be a guide through our midst of darkness in our life. We just need to follow the small impressions and spiritual promptings we feel and focus on the light and good in our life as we follow the gospel. I love you all and hope your weeks are great! 

Banana Tree

Elder Elgaaen and Adair

Food from Wendy's 

Hang glider

Red Ant hill kicked by Elder Adair

November 5, 2018 The Sink

This week was a crazy one! From the very begining it was crazy and it stayed like that through the whole week. So on Monday, we went over to one of the people we are teaachings house. Their house is pretty dirty and so we took a broom to sweep it and clean it up. Elder Adair was sweeping and I decited to go around and clean up some of his trash so we could take it with us when we left. We were doing this after dark and they only had one working light in their house. We were walking around with the flashlight on our phone and there was cockroaches everywhere. After we cleaned for 30ish minutes, we asked if we could wash our hands and proceeded to use the kitchen sink. In the sink, there was over 2" of buildup and both the sinks were clogged. I was going to leave it but saw a spatula on the side of the sink and recited to dig in. The smell was so bad, Elder Adair and I were both gagging! It was the grosest thing I have ever done! HAHA

We had a pretty chill week otherwise. We got to go in early for Halloween because of the dangers that are out and if we knock on peoples door and don't expect candy, they would probably be upset. On Saturday, we taught Tanisha about the sacrament and she committed to come to church and she did! After we finished teaching her, we went outside and there was a taco van selling mexican food and we bought some Tamalies. They were super good! It was a good way to end our night. We also had a super awesome lesson with Anita and Patricia. They are super awesome. They do have some big things to overcome but they are willing to work on them. We taught them about the healing power of the atonement and they really liked that lesson and were willing to make changes and have earnest prayer. 

That pretty much concludes my week! It was super fun and I enjoyed every day. Happiness is a choice! It is something we chose to be each day when we wake up first thing in the morning. I hope we will all choose to be happy and choose to make the best of every day! Love ya and hope you all have an amazing week! 

Elder Elgaaen & Adair with Alvin

Elder Elgaaen & Alvin