Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas was awesome!  It was super hot, but it rained a ton so it felt a lot better. On Christmas day we had a district meeting in San Jose (1 hour away).  Because it rained so much in the morning the bridge back to our city was flooded and the buses couldn´t pass.  So, we ended up doing a lot of contacting in San Jose and also helped the missionaries there with their lessons that they had to do. Finally, the flood passed and we were able to catch a bus back to Canelones.  From there we went straight to a member's house (Hermana Amparo) to use her computer to talk to you guys by Skype! That was my Christmas day! It was crazy and definitely a Christmas I won't forget.

Monday, December 24, 2012

¡Feliz Navidad! I´m super excited to talk to you guys tomorrow! It's going to be awesome.  This evening Elder Aguirre and I are going to an investigator's house for a little dinner and to share a message.  After that, there are two member families that have invited us to their houses for Christmas Eve, so we´re going to visit them and then head back home for bed!  I'm excited to spend some time with the members. It won´t be the same without you guys, but I know what I´m doing is right and that Heavenly Father will look after you.  Tomorrow you will have to let me know how Outback Steakhouse was!

This last Friday we had a Christmas Devotional for all the missionaries here in my mission.  It was AWESOME!  Each zone sang a Christmas song and then we got to hear from President Armstrong. 

Monday, December 17, 2012

I love hearing about all the things that are going on with you guys and, of course, hearing about the sports.  It sounds like all is well back at home with a lot of laughs.  It sounds like all is the same!  It was also interesting to hear about all the mission dates getting moved back.  I know that the missionaries here in Uruguay that go home in January leave a week or two earlier than planned because of all the new missionaries that are coming in.

Anyway, this week was a good week!  I gave a talk yesterday in church about setting goals for the next year. It was awesome and I had people laughing!  I don't think I've really explained much about the people of Uruguay to you guys.  I honestly think they are the laziest people I've ever met!  They are awesome and I love them to death, but I think if Dad was here he would go crazy!  People don't

Monday, December 10, 2012

Well we found out a little bit more about Christmas this year.  Christmas is on a Tuesday, so we´ll have our normal P-Day on Monday and I'll be able to write you that you day.  Then the next day (Christmas), I'll be able to use Skype and talk to you!  I'm super excited to talk to you guys (talking in English is going to be really weird) and see you!  As of right now we're not really sure what time we will have access to Skype.  We need to plan it with the family in the ward who has a computer.  I'll let you know this next P-Day what's going to happen.

We received change calls yesterday and found out that Elder Aguirre and I are going to stay here in Canelones together for another change. We´re super excited and can´t wait to keep working here in Canelones.  The ward here is AWESOME and the members are always helping us with the work.

Monday, December 3, 2012

I received the photo of Perry [good friend serving a mission in Tallahasse, Florida] and thought it was awesome.  I think it would be cool if you sent him my emails.  I would love to hear from him.  I sent him a letter a couple of weeks ago.  I hope he got it.  It's also good to hear Tanner [good friend at the MTC and serving a mission to Korea] is doing great.  I sent him a letter, too.  I can´t believe Michael [Zach's cousin] got his mission call [Roseville, California]!  I´m pumped for him.  Tell him he´s going to be a great missionary. We´re offically going to have 2 Elder Gardaniers in the mission field.  Vamo Arriba Gardanier family!

Well, the ward is awesome.  The branch president is now the bishop with the same couselors and all the other callings are basically the same.  The ward had its first ward baptism this last Thursday with

Monday, November 26, 2012

My Thanksgiving was a good day here in Uruguay!  We found many people to teach and taught many lessons. We ended up not eating any chicken (let alone turkey), but it's all good. 

Our baptism for Silvana is this coming Thursday! This last week was crazy in the branch because we officially became a ward yesterday! There were a lot of parties and meetings this last week with the ward, so we didn´t have much time to do a baptism. The bishop told us this Thursday would be best, so that´s when we are going to do it. 

Monday, November 19, 2012

It was awesome to hear from you and know that you are all doing well!  I received an email from Aunt Tammy and she was saying how excited she is to go up to Utah for Thanksgiving.  I have also received a couple of emails from Lindsay Gardanier.  Make sure to tell her hi for me and that I'm doing awesome and that it was great to hear from her!

Well, Thanksgiving is coming up and it will just be another day in the mission here in Uruguay. We're going to work and I think we might buy a chicken for lunch.  Does that count as a turkey dinner?  People here in Uruguay (of course) don't celebrate Thanksgiving and no one sells turkey here in Canelones.

Monday, November 12, 2012

It was awesome to hear from everyone!  I can't believe it's snowing in Utah.  Here in Uruguay it is nice and warm! That's awesome that Jake got his mission call to Sweden.  He's going to be a great missionary.

Mom, the package with chocolate was perfect!  Nothing was melted and it all turned out great.  So, chocolate is fine to send!  In answer to your question, anything you send for Christmas I will be happy with!  Peanut butter would be nice, too!

Anyway, something interesting from this past week was that Nacional and Peñarol played against each other in soccer.  It's basically like the Super Bowl here in Uruguay.  It's a big rivalry game and

Monday, November 5, 2012

It was awesome to get your emails!  I received a ton from family and friends wishing me a happy birthday.  Make sure to tell everyone thanks for me!  I´m super excited that Elder Burnett and Hermana Muir went to your house!  They are awesome and helped me a ton in the mission.  Elder Burnett is one of the nicest kids I know and hopefully you had fun talking with him.  [Zach's dad: Two returned missionaries, Elder Burnett and Sister Muir, unexpectedly stopped by our house last night to introduce themselves and tell us hello from Zach.  Elder Burnett returned home to Springville just three days ago and brought us a package from Zach.  Sr. Muir returned home to Springville about six weeks ago.  It is crazy how many missionaries from little ol' Springville are in Zach's mission (5).  Elder Burnett and Sr. Muir both knew Zach well in the mission field and say he's doing great. They said he always has a big smile on his face and has such a positive attitude about missionary work and life.  It was very comforting to hear directly from someone that has been with Zach that he is healthy and doing well.  Elder Burnett will be speaking in church next Sunday and Tori and the kids plan on attending to hear more about missionary work in Uruguay].  

Monday, October 29, 2012

It was awesome to hear from you guys!  I also received an email from Grandma and Grandpa White Truck and Tammy.  Tell them I love them tons!  I have to also say that I can't believe Notre Dame is third in the country right now!  The one year I leave and they finally do good!  Anyway, it's all good.  The mission is the best!

This week was AWESOME!  Hermana and Elder Oaks came to Uruguay to speak to us and the other mission this last Saturday.  [Zach's dad: Elder Oaks is a church leader from Salt Lake City].  It was a great experience!  I sat with Elder Barlow and Elder Hicks [Zach's old MTC companions] during the conference and had a good time. Elder Oaks talked to us about repentance and how to better teach are

Monday, October 22, 2012

It's been a crazy week, but I've loved every second of it!  Canelones is a lot different than Noblia and San Francisco. It's a lot bigger and there are a ton more people, but surprisingly only 40 active members in the church.  As of right now the church is a branch but should change to a ward here soon because we have enough priesthood to qualify.  Elder Aguirre is my companion and he's a stud!  He's from Chile just like Elder Peña!  He loves music and plays the piano really, really well. We get a long great and are excited to work here!  He knows a little bit of English, but we ultimately just talk in Spanish. He had some problems with his last companion, but as of right now we're working hard and just basically talking to everyone about the gospel.  It's the best!  The branch seems to like me so that's good, too!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Crazy news! I'm leaving my area right after this email to a city called Canelones.  It's about 30 minutes from my area of San Francisco.  I'm leaving because of a special change.  A missionary in that area had to go home early so I'm going in to take his spot.  I don't know much about the area or my companion, but I'm super excited to work there!  It's a big city and will be my first area where I'm actually in a downtown area - I'm pumped!  President Armstrong called me and told me about the situation and how he never worries about me and told me to get to work and keep doing what I'm doing.  I'm excited that he trusts me that much.  It will be a great experience and I'll make sure to tell you all about Canelones next Monday!

Monday, October 8, 2012

This last week was AMAZING!  I had a blast reading your letters. It's awesome to hear that Alex is going to Argentina!  We'll have the same accent when we get home!  Oh, and Mom, ¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS! I love you tons and think of you everyday!  When I was watching conference I felt close to home because I knew you guys were watching the same thing at the same time.  Thanks for being the best Mom in the world!  I was just thinking the other day of those good times we had cleaning my room together.  I miss those days.  I also miss your cooking!  When I get back I can't wait to have a nice home-cooked meal from you!  I love you, Mom!

This week was awesome with conference! Crazy stuff with the whole age difference.  [Zach's dad: in a worldwide church conference this past weekend, the president of the church announced that young

Monday, October 1, 2012

Well, this week has been a crazy and fun week!  I forgot to tell you, but here in the ward that I'm in there are 4 missionaries.  They combined my area together with the other 2 missionaries and their area to form a ward.  This happened about 8 months ago.  Anyway, because of that we have a ton of less active members in the ward that we have been working with the last 7 weeks.  We need to have 21 active priesthood holders to qualify as a ward and we had 18 when I first got here.  As of now, with the help of the other missionaries that I live with and the couple missionaries (Elder Hill and Hermana Hill), we have 22 active priesthood holders in the ward.  So, as of right now, we qualifty as a ward! We're pumped because since we qualify as a ward we are going to combine with 6 other wards close by to form a stake! Vamo Arriba! It's been a lot of hard work and problem solving with the menos activos ["less active"] because a ton of them won't go to church because they are offended by some other member.  It's really frustrating at times because people are holding grudges for lame things.  But anyway, it's all good and we are working hard to bring them all back.

Monday, September 24, 2012

It was awesome to hear from you guys.  I love hearing about everything that is going on back at home.  Thanks for sending me a birthday package!  Tell Tyler to keep working hard and just have fun. You only play high school football once.  Tell Cade to keep working hard and have fun, too! What's going on with BYU?  Crazy stuff.  I can't believe Notre Dame is doing good now!  That would be an awesome trip to go to a game out in South Bend!

I'm sorry to hear that Brother Davis passed away - I love the tradition we do because of him.  Tell Murph and Alex that I'll try and send a letter to them soon.  How is Tanner and Perry doing?

Monday, September 17, 2012

Yesterday we got transfer calls.  I'm going to stay in San Francisco with Elder Peña again. We're pumped! We have a really good relationship and are always laughing.  He's a great missionary and everyday he teaches me something new. So, needless to say, I'm thrilled about staying! 

This last week we also had stake conference. It was a super cool experience because our stake conference was a satellite broadcast of President Thomas S. Monson, Elder Anderson and Sister Reeves. It was cool to listen to as translators translated for President Monson.  Elder Anderson knew Spanish and did his talk in Spanish.  It was a great stake conference and the spirit was definitely there!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Well, it's good to hear that everyone is doing great. The mail strike is officially over and we´re starting to get mail again.  Today I got three letters from Grandma White Truck and a letter from Jordan Gardanier - tell them thanks for me! And thanks Mom, for preparing a package for me! I'm craving American sweets! Sweet Tarts, Reeses, anything really!  I don´t need any medication, and with the water I'm completely fine. The water here is clean and I have a filter bottle that I drink out of, so it's all good!

This last week was a lot of fun! I went to the temple grounds with our recent converts and some investigators. We went with Selva and the other missionaries that live with us.  It was a BLAST!  After we toured the temple grounds we went to the mission home and talked with the mission

Monday, September 3, 2012

All is well here in San Francisco. I´m absolutely loving it here! The members are awesome and we have some great investigators. With Elder Peña we basically speak Spanish the whole time.  He likes to practice his English, so every once in a while we´ll talk in English but mostly we talk in Spanish. I´m learning a lot with him.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday and Elder Peña and I had a really cool experience with our recent converts Flavia, Ana and Luis.  All three bore their testimonies at church and you could feel the spirit so strong as they bore it. Ana was crying at the pulpit saying how greatful she was for the gospel and the plan of salvation. I can´t remember if I told you but two weeks before the baptism of Ana and

Monday, August 27, 2012

We had the baptism of Ana and Louis!  It was awesome!  They both are in their fifties and are totally converted.  Elder Peña did the baptism and then I ended up giving a five minute talk about the Holy Ghost because the person that was supposed to give the talk was sick (I found out 10 minutes before I had to give the talk!). It was an awesome baptism and the spirit was there!

I absolutely love this ward.  There are a ton of members and they feed us everyday.  We have so much food in our refrigerator that it's ridiculous!  I've been gaining weight and I'm pretty sure it's bad weight!  Elder Peña and I run every morning, so it's been good.  We're trying to get back in shape.  He kills me when we run.  He loves running long distances and hills!  He ran cross-country at a college in Chile.  Elder Peña and I have been getting along great.  We are always laughing and having

Monday, August 20, 2012

This week has been a crazy and stressful week!  So much has happened!  We had a baptism of a 17 year old girl named Flavia Noelia Fernandez Carbonel and also taught quite a few different awesome families.  The baptism was great and the spirit was there.  Our mission president, President Armstrong, actually attended the baptism.  I also got some time with him and we chatted a while about him and the mission.  He's a great guy and he's doing a fantastic job as the mission president.  The reason why President Armstrong attended the baptism was because the sister of Flavia lives in the U.S. and she called President Armstrong and talked to him about how important this baptism is for her sister.  So, President Armstrong thought it would be nice to bring his family to the baptism.  He also brought a really good cake that we all ate.  It was awesome!  I performed the baptism on Saturday and really enjoyed it!

Monday, August 13, 2012

This week has been crazy!  It's been a lot of fun moving areas.  I´m with 3 great elders (Elder Peña, Elder Vorwaller, and Elder Huff). We've been having a lot fun getting to know each other.  I'm basically on the outskirts of Las Piedras.  It's all city here (no beach).  I´m in a pretty poor area again, so it's been really humbling, but I love the area to death.  It's a ton different than Noblia, but I like it. At church yesterday we had about 90 people! Crazy!  The bishop asked me and the other elders to get up in front at the pulpit and introduce ourselves.  As I was introducing myself I told them how nervous I was to talk in front of them because in my last area we had about 14 people in church every week.  They all laughed.  The bishop here is a stud!  He has a sense of humor and is always messing with us - I love it.  I need to get a picture of him and send it to you.

Monday, August 6, 2012

I'm doing awesome and it sounds like everything back at home is great!  Anyway, some big news.  We got change calls last night.  I'm leaving Noblia - kind of a bitter sweet moment.  I'm going to San Francisco in Canelones.  It's close to Montevideo, but on the outskirts.  It sounds like another small town again, but it will be fun.  I will be living in a four missionary house so it should be a blast.  My new companion will be Elder Peña.  He is Chilean.  I will only be speaking Spanish with him, so it will be fun.  The other two missionaries in my house are an American and another Latino.  Anyway, I'm super excited and nervous.  I'll be making the fun seven hour bus ride tomorrow.  Nothing really new has happend besides that - just the same old in Noblia.

This past week I went on a split to Rio Branco.  It's a bigger city and I had a lot of fun.  I got a cool

Monday, July 30, 2012

Well, the Olympics have started so everyone here has the games on.  Uruguay didn't have that many athletes go, but they did have their soccer team, so everyone is really excited.  However, they lost yesterday to some no name team from Africa!  A lot of tears were shed because of the loss.  I'm not even kidding - people were crying in the streets.  Uruguay takes a lot of pride in their soccer, so when they lose it's like the end of the world.  How is the U.S. doing?  You'll have to let me know.

Anyway, Noblia has been great!  We have been teaching various families and have also been spending a lot of time trying to reactivate less active members.  We have quite a bit here, but they are all offended so they won't go to church.  It's really frustrating, but our efforts have been working. 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Zach's dad:  Along with the pictures I posted yesterday, here are a couple of videos that we got from Zach.

Middle of Nowhere

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Zach's dad:  We got a letter from Zach in the mail that included several pictures.  I thought I would post a couple of them.

Cleaning the baptismal font

Monday, July 23, 2012

This last week was another great week!  Elder Erwin and I were crazy busy!  This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to meet my new mission president, President Armstrong, and his family.  His 22 year old son and 16 year old daughter are living with them in the mission home.  The son just got back from a mission in Houston, Texas (Spanish speaking).  He's planning on going to BYU in a couple of weeks.  President Armstrong is a STUD!  I love him to death!  He's more relaxed than President Da Silva, but still very serious about being a mission president.  When I had my interview with President Armstrong the first thing he said to me was Craig Christiansen says hi.  It was funny.  I told him how you guys know Craig and he loved it.  We then talked about BYU football and basketball for the next five minutes in English!  It was weird doing an interview with the mission president in English and talking about BYU sports.  It was awesome and made my day.  Anyway, he's a stud and is going to be an awesome mission president!

Monday, July 16, 2012

This week was another great week!  I got to be a companion with Elder Griffin's companion (Elder Villar) for the day.  We exchanged for just 24 hours.  Elder Villar is a big stud and is from Chile.  He's super nice and outgoing.  He's really funny and we had an awesome day!  He doesn't know any English so I had to use my Spanish all day with him.  It was great practice for my Spanish and by the end of the day we were both exhausted and ready for bed!

Yesterday was Fathers Day here in Uruguay.  It was interesting because our branch president canceled all meetings besides sacrament meeting since it was Fathers Day - and then he didn't even show up to church!  Elder Erwin and I had to conduct sacrament meeting and basically do everything for the branch.  I've had a lot of interesting opportunities with this small branch here in Noblia and have learned a lot about how to run the church.  I also gave a blessing this last week to a lady in the ward.  It was a cool experience and everything went well.  It's funny to think that I'm doing all these things in Spanish because I don't know how to do any of it in English!  Anyway, it was a great week!

Monday, July 9, 2012

I'm doing awesome here in Noblia.  I'm glad you got my photos.  I wish I could have taken more of Noblia. We're not really supposed to take pictures when we're out in public because they don´t want us to look like tourists.

I haven't talked to our new mission president yet. He should be coming up here to Melo in about two weeks for interviews, so I´ll meet him then.  He sounds like a great guy. 

Well, this week has been awesome.  It has been kind of tough lately to find people to teach.  I can honestly say I´ve have talked to everyone in Noblia and have knocked every house like 3 times.  But it is all good.  There are people out there ready to hear the gospel.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Life has been good in Noblia!  I've gained some weight since I've been here, I believe.  I weigh 71 kilos, whatever that is!  I'm pretty sure it's all fat.  

This week was kinda interesting with the whole changes thing (missionary transfers) so I actually stayed here in the district Cerro Largo and worked with another elder, Elder Liddle (he is from England, kinda of crazy!) and we went to his area.  His area is called Fraile Muerto ("Dead Priest"). It's a town a little bit bigger than Noblia.  I spent all day there Tuesday with him and went tracting.  I don't know what is up with me and small areas but that's basically been my mission thus far.  It's been interesting and I've learned a lot!

Monday, June 25, 2012

This last week has been awesome!  We had our three baptisms with Michel, Patrick, and Douglas! Elder Erwin and I and the Noblia Branch were all super excited!  I baptized Michel and confirmed him at church yesterday.  It was a great experience and the whole time Michel had a huge smile on his face - it was awesome!  I was stressing about the baptism because I had to remember Michel's full name ... "Galdino Michel Antunez Tabarez."  Everyone here has like 4 to 5 names, it's crazy!

Anyway, it went really well and the spirit was definitely there.  One more thing - the baptism totally reminded me of my baptism because the water heater was broken.  The water was FREEZING!  I was super impressed with the boys because they had smiles the whole time.  The branch president and I

Monday, June 18, 2012

Everything is going great in Noblia, like always!  I played soccer with the teenagers last Monday.  Once again, they made me look really stupid but I love playing soccer with them and they definitely love making fun of me so it all works out! 

We have a baptism planned for this Saturday with three kids, Patrick (13), Douglas (11), and Michelle (9) (all boys).  They will be my first baptisms and I'm pumped!  They are the coolest and smartest kids ever.  I'll make sure to send you a photo of them next week!  The area has been really, really tough.  The last change when I went to go pick up Elder Erwin, other missionaries were asking me where my area was.  I told them Noblia and they all just looked at me and apologized for being in

Monday, June 11, 2012

Dang! I´m super bummed about the photos.  Just this past week my other memory card got damaged and I lost all those photos and videos, too.  I'll have to buy some bubble wrap or something.  Anyway, I'll make sure to try and take more photos.

[Zach's dad:  Zach sent home a memory card full of pictures and videos, but the envelope arrived this past week, torn and without the memory card.  The letter came in a plastic bag with an apology from a sorting facility of the U.S. postal service.]

So this week has been another great week! We´ve been teaching the Rodriguez family and three other boys (Patrick, Douglas, Michell) and it's been going great!  They love us to death and they are

Monday, June 4, 2012

Well, it's been another great week in Uruguay!  I'm having a blast with Elder Erwin in Noblia.  We are finding a lot of people who are interested and having many lessons. I absolutely love the mission! It's been awesome!

Last week after I wrote you guys from Tres Cruces, me and Elder Erwin had the opportunity to go to McDonalds!  It was the best thing ever!  McDonalds here seems like a super nice restaurant so it is really weird; however, it tastes the same.  I also got the package from Alex Sisk this last week! You´ll have to tell him that I love the tie and that I think his tie idea is great - I want to do it!  I´m sending a picture of me wearing the tie.

Monday, May 28, 2012

It's been another awesome week in Uruguay!  I'm actually in Montevideo writing you today.  We took a bus at 12:30 in the morning and got here at 5:30 in the morning.  I feel like I've done this drive one too many times.  I had to come to Montevideo again for a medical thing.  I guess all new people in the country have to get a physical exam, so that's why I'm here.  I'll be heading back to Noblia by bus around 2:00 p.m., so we´ll have another nice trip back.  I'm starting to get used to the drive!  I'm writing you from Tres Cruces.  I'm in a huge bus station!  It's like an airport but for busses - it's crazy!

Well, this week we've had some great lessons.  We taught a ton of people and things are going great. I absolutely love the mission!  It's been so awesome!  This week Elder Erwin and I planned a soccer activity with the youth of Noblia at the church. We had a great turn out! We had about 25 kids there all

Monday, May 21, 2012

Well, my new companion is Elder Erwin.  He is the funniest guy I've ever met.  He is a complete opposite of Elder Jackson.  He is way into drama, acting, and singing, but he likes sports, too.  He is almost 6'5" and pretty skinny.  All the people here in Noblia really like him and get along with him great!

The bus trip back from Montevideo was a lot quicker this time.  It didn't seem that bad because I knew what I was doing and when we made quick stops for snacks I actually knew what was good to eat (and knew what I was eating).  When I went down to Montevideo with Elder Jackson we went to his favorite area and talked with some of his converts.  They love him so much and gave us a ton of food!  We also went to his favorite restaurant where this guy made these really, really good calzones.  It was awesome!  After that we went to the church by the mission home and that's where I met Elder Erwin.  I'll send a photo so you can see him.

Monday, May 14, 2012

[Zach's dad:  For Mother's Day we were able to talk to Zach by Skype for over thirty minutes.  Technology in this day and age is amazing.  Although half a world away, Zach sounded and felt like he was in the room next door.  His enthusiasm about life and missionary work is contagious.  Zach followed up yesterday's call with an email today.  Here are some excerpts.]

It was the best thing ever to talk to and see you guys yesterday! I love Skype and I thought it worked great!  I could hear and see you guys perfect!  I'm sorry it was so short.  Another missionary had just got to the house we were at.  He was supposed to talk to his family an hour before, but I guess Skype wasn't working at the house where he was.  So he came to the house we were at to jump on and quickly talk to his family.  It was super hard to say goodbye, but I was glad we were able to talk.  I

Monday, May 7, 2012

All is well here in Uruguay!  It's been a crazy week but I'm starting to get used to it.  I'm pretty sure every week is gonna be crazy for the next two years.  

For Mother's Day, I have awesome news!  We are going to go to Melo on Sunday night and do Skype from a member's home!  I'm super excited to do it!  I will get on the computer and talk to you at 6:30 p.m. Uruguay time (3:30 p.m. Utah time).

I haven't received any of the other packages besides the one you sent me for Easter.  I have gotten some letters and I'm trying to write back.  It's just super hard as we are constantly busy!  It's crazy!

Monday, April 30, 2012

It was another great and exciting week!  Uruguay is awesome!  It was nice to hear from all of you.  I love hearing what's going on and what everyone is up to.  I got mail this past week from Shelly, Cole, Jordan, and Grandma Gardanier.  I also received the Easter package.  Thank you so much!  It hit the spot! 

Mom, in answer to your questions, when we buy food here in Noblia we typically buy from this little store on the main road.  A member of the church works there so she usually hooks us up!  That is where we buy pretty much everything.  They have told us a little bit about Mother's Day and they even said we could Skype.  However, we are out in the freakin' boonies so we won't be able to do that.  But I will be able to call!  They'll tell us more this week and then I'll let you know what the plan is.

Monday, April 23, 2012

So it's been another amazing week!  I love the mission!  I'm meeting a ton of cool and amazing people everyday!

So today for P-day me and Elder Jackson (who is from Ogden, Utah) helped some missionaries move out of their house to an apartment.  After that we went and looked for some supplies for our house.

Just this last week we got an oven, washing machine, and a whiteboard for our house.  Our house is brand-new so it didn't have anything in it.  We've been slowly buying things for the last couple of weeks.  It's been a pain, but it's all good!  One of the pictures I'm sending is how we got the washer, oven and whiteboard to the house.  It's pretty funny, I thought.  Good ol' Jorge and his bike!  He's a

Monday, April 16, 2012

I had another amazing week!  I'm learning a ton from Elder Jackson.  In answer to your question, I haven't received any packages or mail yet.  Our mission president says it typically takes about a month to receive packages and about a week or two for mail.  It's interesting how they do mail here. We give our mail to our district leader who then sends it to the Mission President who then sends it through the mail to the U.S.  I don´t quite understand how it works, but anyway, I think you guys will receive my letters faster than I will receive yours.  I hear the mail here more reliable than other places in South America, but I'm still kinda hesitant.

We eat a lot of meat down here! A lot of noodles and meat, or sandwiches. Yesterday I ate a dog (I'm pretty sure I'm not joking).  I was trying not to think about it while I was eating!  It tasted alright. 

Monday, April 9, 2012

I´m doing great!  This week has been absolutely crazy and I don´t even know where to begin.  Monday was the longest day of my life. When I got to Uruguay (on Tuesday) we went to the mission home for two hours and then I found out I had to drive another 7 hours to get to Melo, spend the night, and then drive another hour the next day to get to Noblia.  It was the longest day ever - but it's all good.  Noblia is absolutely tiny and the people are super poor.  It's been a really humbling experience and I am super blessed to have the things I have in my life.  We live in a tiny, tiny house and have hot water for our showers but everything else is cold.  Elder Jackson is an absolute stud and has been showing me the ropes.  He works hard but he's been impressed with my attitude because I always want to work.  He's also impressed with my boldness.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I´ve made it to Uruguay safely!  This is a short email but I´ll be able to write more on Monday.  Monday is our P-day.  My new companion is Elder Jackson.  He's a cool guy and has been showing me around.  It's a lot different here, but it's awesome.  I´m living in Noblía and me and Elder Jackson are the only ones living in the house.  Noblía is close to the border of Brazil.  My zone leader is Elder Griffin and he is actually in my district.  He's a really awesome kid and it was nice seeing a familiar face.  [Zach's Dad: Elder Griffin is from Mapleton, Utah and we've known their family for many years].  I'm healthy and doing great!  It's a crazy world here!  Oh, and my Spanish is horrible; but it's all good.  I love you guys! I´ll talk to you on Monday!

Zach's dad:  Click here for a link to Zach's new city (or town, rather)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Zach leaves for Uruguay tomorrow.  A couple of random videos from the MTC before he leaves:

Thursday, March 29, 2012

I can't believe I'm basically done here in the MTC!  It flew by so fast!  I had my last class today with my teachers and it was really sad.  They were honestly the best teachers I could have had and I was so blessed to have them.  I got a few pictures with them so I'll make sure to send some photos before I leave for Uruguay.

Life has been really crazy this last week!  It is really busy because of General Conference and other meetings we will attend since we're leaving this Monday.  I'm super nervous to leave for Uruguay but am also really excited.  I've learned a ton of Spanish but I still feel like I don't know anything.  The Lord is gonna have to help me quite a bit with the language down in Uruguay!

Monday, March 26, 2012

A couple of pictures we recently received:

Zach with a couple of missionaries from his district.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Today we should be getting our flight plans. My whole district is super excited but the five missionaries that are supposed to go to Argentina don't have their visas yet and we heard they might be reassigned ... they are kinda bummed. I'll let you know what my flight plans are. I will try and send another email tonight and let you know what's going on.

Elder Oaks and his wife came and spoke to us on Tuesday. He is an amazing man, but I was really impressed by his wife. She just had surgery on her foot but she still wanted to come speak to the missionaries.  She told us how much she loves the missionaries and said she wouldn't miss coming and speaking to us for the world. She was really kind and spoke to us like a mother. I felt like I was sitting in her living room and she was just giving me motherly advice. She was awesome! Elder Oaks

Friday, March 16, 2012

It was another great week! There were some frustrating moments with Spanish, but I learned a lot from my teachers and my fellow missionaries, so it is all good! I'm learning!

I sent my picks for March Madness. I totally guessed on everything (and received some divine revelation). You'll have to keep me posted on how my picks are doing.  I heard BYU lost to Marquette but had an amazing play-in game. We try to get as much information out of the teachers here as possible or ask new missionaries what the latest news is. It's pretty funny to see all the missionaries that have been in the MTC for awhile crowd around the missionaries that have only been here for a day or less and try to get as much information out of them as possible.

Friday, March 9, 2012

I had another awesome week! It was my first week of being a zone leader and it went awesome. Me and Elder Hicks have to set up our Sunday sacrament meetings and assign who is doing what.  We attend many meetings every night. They are basically about our district and making sure everyone is doing alright.  It's been a good experience.

I've been sleeping great! Each night I crash at 10:30.  I honestly can't wait to go to bed each night. It's the best thing ever! My roomates, however, are not as good.  They complain about my snoring.  They even wear earplugs.  However, I guess I'm still pretty loud.  But they'll live.

The Spanish is coming along.  My teachers have told me they are impressed with how much better

Friday, March 2, 2012

Today I had one of the most amazing P-days!  We went to the temple.  After we were changing we discovered the temple cafeteria.  The food was absolutely amazing!  (Just because I think we were all used to the MTC food. Not even comparable to your cooking, momma!). Anyway, we all were in heaven and left with full stomachs. Our district is gonna do it every week now!

My companion Elder Hicks is a great example to me and I look up to him. He's really active and loves the outdoors. He rock climbs, hikes, skydives, and does ice climbing. He basically does it all. I can't remember if I took a picture of one of the pictures he has here in our room, but anyway he had the longest hair in high school! Its hilarious! He looks like a chick and I remind him of that every day. Anyway, he's a stud.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

We received some pictures from Zach today.  Here are a couple:

The "classic" photo pointing to your mission on the MTC world map.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Thanks for the letters.  It is awesome to hear from you guys.  I'm going to send a letter this week with the memory card from my camera so you can see some of my pictures and videos.

So, just to let you know, everything is going well.  The language is getting frustrating and I feel like a lot of my district is getting it down faster than me, but it's ok.  I know with time it will come.

I realized I haven't told you that I'm in the MTC choir!  I've been in it since I got here but somehow it slipped my mind to tell you.  I can't sing a note to save my life.  However, it's way nice to go to choir and get away from the language for a bit.  It's also nice to hear some music since they don't let you listen to your own music here at the MTC.  So anyway, I'm in the choir and rock'n it!

Friday, February 17, 2012

The week has been awesome!  My Spanish has been getting progressively better and I can see the Lord's hand in that daily. It's weird to think that I'm learning to speak and understand another language. It's been an awesome experience! Elder Hicks, my companion, is a pro with the language. He helps me out a ton and whenever I don't know how to say something he always has my back. We have an awesome companionship.

During this week I was able to watch a fireside by Elder Bednar that he gave during Christmas time to the elders here in the MTC. It was an amazing talk. He talked on the character of Christ.  He went through Matthew Chapter 4 and broke it down. It's amazing how much Christ loves us and how charitable He is.  He also told a story about how a mother lost her daughter in a car accident but was

Friday, February 10, 2012

It has been a long week but I made it!  The days are going by a lot faster now.  I get a lot of the days mixed up together. They keep us very busy.  Every minute there is something planned. We go from breakfast, to class, to lunch, to class, then to dinner, and then end with gym.  It's pretty much that everyday.  We wake up at 6:30 every morning.

Fast Sunday was really cool. We had a mission conference for 2 hours and then went to sacrament meeting right after.  My district is combined with an Italian district so it's really interesting. I can understand a little bit of what they say. The Italian district is awesome! They totally took our Spanish district under their wing. They have been here for 7 weeks so they only have 2 weeks left with us before they go to Italy.  There are 10 of them and there are 10 from my district, so a total of 20 plus

Saturday, February 4, 2012

It's been crazy here at the MTC! It's been a lot of hard work but that's good - it keeps my mind off things. I have an awesome companion and his name is Elder Hicks. We work great with each other and feed off each other's hard work. We're both really stressed about learning Spanish, but in time we'll get it.  They already have us teaching lessons in Spanish to fake investigators - it's pretty intense. He and I have no idea what we are saying but somehow the investigator is getting it because she seems to nod at things we say so let's hope she does understand.  The food here is just like the Cannon Center at BYU so the food is pretty good! My zone leaders are two elders going to Italy and they are awesome!  Elder Money is from Spanish Fork and is hilarious! And Elder Treadway is from Nevada and loves baseball, so we have a connection also. He too is funny.  So all in all my zone leaders are really tight.  The MTC put our district (me, Elder Hicks, Elder Barlow, Elder Tippets, Elder Benning, Elder Thomas, Elder

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Zach entered the Provo MTC today.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Mission farewell talk at Springville Hobble Creek 12th Ward:

Good afternoon. It is so great to look out at the congregation and see family, friends, and ward members. I really appreciate your love and support. My name is Zach Gardanier and as many of you know, I received a mission call to serve and teach the people of Uruguay. I leave for the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday. I’m really excited, but also a little nervous. I know it will be a wonderful experience and I’m grateful for all of your love and support. I know missions are hard work and that I will go through challenges that I have never experienced before. But I know that if I have faith and follow the Lord’s teachings that I will be okay and everything will turn out great.

This leads me to my topic for today. I was asked to speak on “Faith in Jesus Christ.”