Happy Birthday, Elder Garner!

It's my little brother's birthday today!

Here's the photo we sent him. I had big plans for a great family photo, but it turned out to be a hand-written sign held by kids in their jammies at the breakfast table. And you know what? That'll do just fine.

Today is the day Elder Garner is able to email his family, so we were all lucky to hear from him on his big day. 

He told my mom that this is the best birthday he's ever had. I'll buy that, too. I think his birthday has always gotten lost in the midst of back to school excitement and busy-ness, sadly. But missionaries have no back to school season to distract, and Taylor's fellow missionaries made the day all about him.

They took him to Texas Roadhouse over the weekend to celebrate (if Texas Roadhouse has a location within the state of Texas, should they just call it Roadhouse?). Here he is in the saddle during the happy birthday song. Looks like he's enjoying himself just a bit, huh?

We sent some birthday decorations to make the apartment all festive.

A few observations about this classic missionary apartment...

• The fixture holds five lightbulbs. There's only one working.
• There's an empty juice container on the floor. Because really, where else would you put it?
• The purple shelves. Oh, the purple shelves.
• The picture above the purple shelves is hanging on for dear life.
• Their table is a little folding table, and I don't see a single chair. Adorable.
• There's some sort of protein or other supplement on the counter. Guys will be guys, and even on a mission they've gotta be buff!
• It looks like there's hot sauce on the counter. They're eating Texas style.
• It is Taylor's apartment, though...so Clorox wipes are easily accessible. Check out the counter.

It's all just so cute!

Taylor has been transferred to San Angelo, Texas. He's been working well with his new companion, Elder Palomo.

 Here are some of his thoughts on San Angelo so far:

"It has been my toughest area so far. Missionaries don't have a very good reputation around here. People will just ignore you when you try and talk to them; a lot of doors getting shut in our face. It could be discouraging, sure, but every time something like that happens, it just strengthens my testimony even more. Not even Christ was accepted by everyone. In John 15:18 He tells us: 'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.'"

In spite of the more resistant atmosphere, things are going well and he's feeling great. 

They helped some members recently and the kids took them out on their Rhino.

I love the bunny ears!

The family are hawg hunters, which I was clueless about until a Google search during this post. It's something to do with fishing (ok, it wasn't an extensive Google search). Taylor said they've got a pretty sweet setup with all of the equipment and it was lots of fun to spend time with this kind family.

I'll do some quick catching up, because I didn't post everything from Slaton, Elder Garner's last area. 

This photo is from a storm back in June. The wind was strong enough to blow these trailers completely upside-down. It was just wind!

You can barely see Taylor standing in front of the trailer on the left.

I think Elder Garner and his companion, Elder Clement, were going for pensive in this shot. They were about to be transferred. 

Or maybe they're bidding farewell - in Slaton they probably saw more than their fair share of farms. 

I'll leave off with San Angelo photos...

I don't know why Taylor is in a field flashing a "number one". First day in San Angelo? He's number one and proud of it? One field down, hundreds to go? One can only wonder.

And this is gorgeous.

Happy end of your birthday, Elder Garner! We love you!