Elder James Gardner: 9/23/24

 We met God in the flesh...

Kia ora whanau!

This week was good! Yes we really did meet God, just read about what happened on Saturday, it was wild! Heres the weekly breakdown!

Wednesday: we had temple/pday so we were out of the house basically all day! The temple was great and its so fun to see all the other elders in our zone and neighbor zone! I reunited with elder davis and valgardson too which was cool cuz i havent seen them since mtc!

Thursday: pretty basic day lol, we got to do some service for a less active named Ray so that was sweet! We did some weeding for him 🌾🌿and it went by pretty quick but it was nice to change up what we usually do! 

Friday: friday was pretty normal too, we had another great chat with brownie and she went to church on sunday too! She has fallen back in love with the gospel which is amazing! We also had dinner with a member at a Chinese place and they got heaps of food so that was nice and it was a great dinner😍!

Saturday: this day was pretty wild lol. I woke up feeling kinda sick so thank goodness for american medicine becuase i wouldnt have made it through the day without it lol. It was a pretty busy day, we had a couple visits in the morning and then a district blitz in the afternoon 🙌. District blitz is where our district just meets up and we all door knock on the same street for an hour and come back and talk about it, so that was fun! That night we went to a returning member named Etu. He is so nice and funny and he hasnt been to church in a few years but he is excited to come back and he was there on sunday! 

We also met up with Jessica, a strange lady that we met door knocking and had a little chat and had set up this return appt. But when we went there, we realized how crazy she was. She literally thinks shes God and that she birthed Jesus. But she calles him Jess-us (because it sounds like her name 🤦‍♂️). So she talked about how she can fly, levitate objects, travel in time, and so many other crazy crazy things. She is mad becuase people pray to god as a male, even though she is a female. Anyways we just stood there and listened to her yap about all this crazy stuff and we are gonna go back and introduce the BoM to her 😂. Im excited to see what she thinks about it. Shes super nice tho, just a bit off the rails. 

Sunday: I was feeling much better on sunday, just a cough and not as sick. We spent most of our day at the chapel becuase we had a meeting before and we greeted people as they came in. Etu came and he loved church! Brownie also came and she wants to start temple prep which is so so exciting! So we get to work on that with her!

We got invited to a members house for dinner and actually its the same member who i went to for dinner during my first week out on my mission! This family always makes so much food and it is all so good 😋! And even though all of the kids in the family are shy, we had a great lesson and a great time!

Monday (today): today we met up with Ngamatuea. He is basically our only real friend that we have in this area and he is so funny. He used to be in gangs and all that but now he has moved away from that stuff. Today we got there and he told us that he was going to serve in the war in Ukraine 😮. This was super unexpected for us haha and he said that is 25 yr old son is going with him too. He is leaving in 2 weeks and he hasnt even told his partner 😂. Hes a pretty wild guy but yeah we just talked about that and we read some scripts with him. Our last lesson with him is on friday so thats sad 😢

We have district p-day today so that will be fun! We are going to the shops near the city and we are gonna do some activities there so it should be fun!

Overall a good week! It sucks that this area is hard to get friends in, we are mostly doing member work which is really good and all but im missing out on the lessons part of missionary work 😂. I havent even taught the plan of salvation 😬. But i still love the maunakiekie area and me and my comp have tons of fun even in this tough area! Hope yous are all doing good! I always love emails or messeges on facebook, so thank you to everyone who contacts me! 

Script of this week is:

Enos 1:9

    Now, it came to pass that when I had heard these words I began to feel a desire for the welfare of my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore, I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them.

I love this becuase i feel like enos! When i feel the power of the jesus grace as i repent, i want to share it with the world! That is why i am serving my mission!

- Elder Gardner