Week 16: Disagreement

Well hello there mi familia, another week has come and gone! It was a pretty busy week, and I'll get to it in a second, but first off I want to say thank you for the package! And thank you for the CD's, the picture, and the note from Marilee :) That was very nice. I'm still enjoying the candy and everything, so thank you!!

Mom - I'm sorry to hear that Sis. Wright passed away. :( That's too bad. But I'm sure that she is happy where she is now, "enjoying a rest from her labors." Your story about forgetting to change the clocks is too funny haha… that's definitely something that would happen in our house! :) They don't believe in Daylight Savings here in Puerto Rico, so now you're only 2 hours behind instead of 3.

Dad - Thanks for the sports updates! It's good to hear that BYU at least made the tournament, even if they didn't go too far. Elder Hammer and I have been wondering since last week when March Madness started how BYU was doing.  And yes, it is always warm here in Puerto Rico haha... We go to the University here in Caguas to use the computers, which is pretty nice. And I hope Rex starts feeling better too, poor guy! I'm glad he's helping out with the goats though. I'm sure he loved getting his jaws around Billy haha.

Marilee - I'll email you separately. :)

Anyway, so here's how the week went down.

Last Monday, after shopping, we went bowling! That was pretty fun haha.. although I only scored 62 and 63 points respectively in my first two games... (yes Dad, your legacy lives on in your son, the Gutterball Prince). But game 3 was pretty good! I scored about 110 or so! So I was pretty happy about that. :) Anyway, so after bowling and such, and after P-day was over, Elder Hammer and I went to a lesson with a man named Roy. He speaks English, so we taught him about the Restoration and everything, and he seemed to enjoy learning. He's pretty Catholic, so I don't think he's wanting to change, but we gave him a Book of Mormon to read and such, so hopefully that will help him change his heart.

Tuesday was the day before transfers, so things were a bit crazy. We had Elder Hafen, one of the ZL's with us for some of the day, and so we weren't able to get a lot done. Around 5:00 ish, he left for San Juan, and then we were able to pass by some people and teach them. That night we were able to teach Oscar, with a member present. It was a pretty good lesson, and he was very excited, but he was so excited that he wouldn't let us talk enough to answer his questions, which was pretty frustrating. But it was still a pretty decent lesson, and we were able to answer his questions and such, which was good.

Wednesday was transfer day, so we had Elder Martinez with us all day while his old companion, Elder Griffin, left for Mayagüez, and his new companion, Elder Foggin, came in. We got a lot of contacting done, but that's about it haha. No lessons. But we had a good dinner with the Sanabria family, which was nice. Basically just a contacting day.

Thursday was a bit better, and we did quite a bit of contacting that day also. We also passed by Milton to let him know that we wouldn't be teaching him anymore because he's not doing his part or anything. He didn't seem too shaken up about it, which is basically why we dropped him - he wasn't progressing. And again, that's basically the highlight of the day. We don't have a ton of investigators, so we end up contacting for the majority of the day. It's tiring, but there's nothing else we could be doing.

Which is basically all we did Friday was contact. We had a cita with Roy in the evening, but he was sick and couldn't have us over. So we just contacted pretty much all day haha.

The same thing happened on Saturday. We did a TON of contacting. However, there's an interesting story for you about Saturday. While contacting, we ran into a couple of guys who seemed nice enough. We got talking (all in Spanish) and I asked them "Have you talked to missionaries before?" and they said "Oooohh yes." So I asked "So you've heard our message?" To which they replied "Yes, yes we have." We talked a bit more, and then I asked "So what church do you belong to?" and that's when it started haha. One guy said "The only true church upon the face of the earth, established by Jesus Christ - the Catholic church." That's when I knew this was going to be a slugfest. We didn't try to fight, but we stood up for our beliefs and tried to teach them about the Book of Mormon. The problem was, they were just downplaying it as "a book like the Bible," instead of the sacred scripture it is. Eventually they got to the point where they called Joseph Smith a liar, which is when we just walked off, because we couldn't stay there and argue and feel the Spirit at the same time. It was pretty crazy. I really wanted to read to them from 2 Nephi 29, but I knew that that wouldn't help at all, it would just cause more contention. :\ So that was interesting. It was a good experience, because it helped me realize what I could have said better, and do more to help them see that their church, as good as it is, and as many truths as it has, is NOT the true church, and does NOT have the authority of Jesus Christ. We tried to tell them that, but they just got mad and said our religion is "malfundado" (wrong foundation).  Anyway, so that was that, and the big highlight of the day, my first real fight on the mission haha. :) It was also St. Patrick's, and we were all in green ties that day haha. But apparently they don't believe in St. Patrick's here because there was no green in sight. Oh well.

Then yesterday, we had church in the morning, and then passed by a few people, but mostly just contacted. We didn't have any lessons, so we ended up contacting for most of the day. This morning was our district meeting and weekly planning, and then we'll have lunch after this, so looking like a pretty decent P-day. :)

Anyway, that was my week! Pretty crazy and full of changes, but a pretty good one. Thank you again so much for your package, and I hope you are all doing well! I love you all, and pray for you always! Thank you for your support and for all that you do for me. I know that I can count on you whenever, especially during the darkest times. Thank you all so much. I love you all.

Con mucho amor

--

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Alma 29:9

3 Nephi 5:13

1 Cor. 13:11

D&C 4

Joshua 1:9