Today's email, and some pictures!

So, we are now on the down hill slide. Today went really fast. We had more training with "investigators."  It was really a special experience. We had really good people to practice with, and we learned how to react with an investigator with lots of questions. I know it won't be as easy in the field, but at least we are starting to think of ways to work with investigators.

 

Mom at the MTC--doesn't she look like a natural wearing that tag?? (Hopefully we'll get one of Dad soon...hint hint!)

Our trainer, Elder Rowe won't be with us anymore. We got a picture with him and said goodbye. Before he left though he showed us a video of a talk Elder Bednar gave on how to decide if the "prompting" we get is from the Holy Ghost or is it just me.  His counsel was to quit worrying about it. Do what is right and the Spirit will lead you and you will go where you are supposed to go. He then told us about the 20 Mark Note story. Elder Bednar was Stake President in Arkansas and Elder Boyd K. Packer came to visit. They were having one of those regional conferences where several Stakes were meeting together. The day before the Sunday meeting, they had a Priesthood meeting for the Stake leaders with Elder Packer.  He asked all the presidents to introduce themselves. When it was Elder Bednar's time, he told Elder Packer that they had actually met years ago when Elder Bednar was a young missionary in Germany, Elder Packer visited with his wife. They arrived when the Mission President was visiting somewhere else and Elder Bednar had to pick them up from the airport and deliver them back again when they were ready to leave. The plane was delayed and Elder Packer had to leave so they got he and his wife on the train to get them somewhere else in Europe that they needed to be. They drove them to the train and as the Packers got out of the car, Elder Bednar handed them 20 marks and when asked why he was doing it, he said they might get hungry and need some money to buy food.

As the train arrived at the border between East and West Germany, East German soldiers boarded and started checking everyone's passport.  Sister Packer had a passport that had originally been good for 3 years and she had extended it to 5 years. East Germany was not honoring these types of passports. When they handed over the passports, the soldiers told them she did not have one that was valid. Elder Packard described the soldier as the meanest, surliest, nastiest man he had met. Things were about to get really ugly because Elder Packer was not about to let them take Sister Packer off that train. Then he was prompted to hand over the passports and to put the 20 marks within her passport. The soldiers took them and walked off. It wasn't long before the passports came back and they were allowed to continue on the train.

Elder Bednar said that Elder Packer referred to the story as the 20 mark note. When you get a prompting, listen to it. Elder Bednar told us to follow the promptings and not to worry about where it was coming from. Just do what was right, and the Lord would take care of us. One other thing we learned from it is that we have the power to make promises with regard to our calling, and the Lord will honor those promises.

Lenhards, Gardners, Bolos, Jefferies, and kneeling, their trainer, Elder Rowe

Right after lunch we met our new "can you believe it." One of the Elders came up to us. He and his wife are leaving for Hawaii. She is a nurse, and he will work in the office. We had talked with them off and on several times over the course of the week. He said that he kept thinking that he knew the Lenhard name, but it just came to him. He worked with Adam. He was head of economic development for the state of Utah. He really likes Adam and said he was the best thing that had happened to Clearfield. It made us even more proud to call Adam our son.

Can we believe how we have been blessed to make so many connections?

Tonight, we went to a wedding reception held for a cousin of Brad. We went just to meet Donna (Brad's mom) and Donna's dad. He is the grandfather that Cohen got his middle name from (Levier). What a nice man, he is 98 years old. To make it even better, friends of the bride's family were there and they had gone on their mission to Wisconsin 10 years ago. It was cold then too.

Sister and Elder Gardner, Donna Gardner Ivey (Brad's mom), Dad, Levier Gardner (Brad's grandfather), and Mom

We got home and I got some genealogy done. Now I'm going to pack for tomorrow. We do some more practicing. Tomorrow, it will be on working with less active members.

We are ready to get going with this mission. We learned we have to pay more attention to our promptings and seek the Spirit's help in all we do. We are excited.

MOM and DAD