Elder Gardner: 7/14/25

 I HAD TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL THIS WEEK

Yo kia ora whats up. This week was rough as but we made it thru the week and today we are at the temple which is sick. This is my frist time going through the new auckland for endowments so im keen

- Last monday i was sick and my infection was pretty bad but we still had a good p day 

- we had some waffles with other missionaries in the morning and then went shopping and took a nap, that night we did some work and then the area office medical advisor checked my infection and signed me up for an ultrasound the nxt day

- tuesday morning we had a bunchbof trouble with the ultrasound place, but we got in and i had my ultrasound. I wasnt allowed to go pee before the scan so i was dying lol i needed to go so bad

- after the scan we had a meeting and then did some visits and then we went to the doctors to review what was on the scan. The doctor said that i needed to go to the ER to get the infection drained asap so we headed straight for the hospital

- the hopsital went pretty smooth, i was there with my comp and the medical senior couple until my comp had to leave and then it was just me and the mission nurse and all the hosptial workers. They did all the vitals stuff and then i just had to wait for my turn for surgery

- they wheeled me down to a sleeping room bc the surgery was going to be during the night and at 8:30pm the mission nurse had to leave the hospital so i was chilling there all alone haha it was pretty weird

- by 10pm they were ready to do the surgery so i got put to sleep and i woke up 1 hr later with a lot of pain in my leg haha, eventually the pain went away and i was able to fall asleep

- Wednesday morning i woke up and they gave me some breakfast and then i just chilled until they said i could get dressed and leave

- i left to go upstairs and sat in this chair waiting for my papers for a while, i talked to this catholic dude tho 

- eventually i got out and we went to go film a video with the social media sisters, i had to walk around and now they have a video of me limping around on facebook haha

- the rest of the day was pretty chill with some lessons. I felt pretty good, i just had to change the padding over my wound every 12 hours

- Thursday was normal, i had a doctors visit and he said that the recovery was good so far. The nurse told me to do some things that didnt make sense tho lol. She wanted me to shower with my open wound and when i tried it hurt like the dickens lol

- that night we had a little FHE with a less active family and found out that their son was friends with the kid in another family that weve been teaching. We invited the son of the less active fsnily to invite our friend to church over roblox and turns out on sunday we saw them there 😂 that was sick

- friday we found some new people to teach which has been really good because we hadnt been able to find new keen people for a couple weeks

- saturday we were inspired to visit a member in the morning and when we went, he introduced us to his roomate who we were able to have a lesson with and set up a lesson which was cool

- we street contacted and got bashed 1 hr later

- found some more people knocking

- had a nice dinner with our new members family and they fed us so much i was dying. I layed down on their couch and chilled cuz i was so full

- church on sunday was good, there were some very nice talks and we had some of our friends come.

- monday we did more street contacting in the morning and found a couple people who might be keen. 

- had a lesson with this kid Mo that we found, hes super new to Christianity and hes a smart as kid so it was a good lesson

- had a mission wide prayer for us to hit our baptismal goal that we have set for this transfer. Theres only one saturday left and we are close to either hitting our goal or barely missing it, but i have faith that we will get it!

- today we got to go to the temple and it was awesome. I saw some people from past areas which was cool and i felt the spirit speak to me.

- after the temple we went to some shops and i was able to get some crocs and a new backpack for when i leave to rarotonga

- i had 1 last doctors appointment and he said that im healing all good and everything is going well so im glad about that.

Sorry this is such a long email, lots of things went on. I had hit a very low point physically, mentally, and spiritually with my injury but the Lord has helped me through that challenge and we are seeing blessing in our missionary work as we keep holding to our faith. I am reminded continually to remain humble and to trust in the Lord and to trust in those who may know more then me. I am grateful for the many opportunities i have to humble myself and receive blessings for doing so. 

Hope yous all had a great week. Feel free to email or message me and i will try to get back.

Arohanui!