Slideshow

LuvDigiScraps's Awesome Mission Pics album on Photobucket

30 April 2012

Week 23: Transferred!

My dear family, today marks officially my 5 month mark here in Puerto Rico! Crazy, eh? It's been quite the crazy week, and I'll get to all that in a minute, but I do want to say that I did get your package, thank you! I appreciate everything that is in it, and thank you so much for your love and support. Anyway, to reply to your emails first.

Mom - Well I must say, your news about Elder Reed is great. I bet he's doing great up there. What you were saying about the ballroom festival/event thingy sounds pretty crazy. I hope Braydon decides to go on a mission, because no matter what happens, the mission will make things so much better for him. There's an elder here who got a scholarship to play basketball at Duke University. DUKE. That's like, one of the best basketball programs in the nation. And he came on a mission. I hope that Marilee makes it to the DC Ballroom, that would be really great for her! And thanks for the tips for the rust stains, I'll be trying that as soon as I can haha. Also, thank you for sending me the parts from my setting apart, that was really cool to read through again, and helpful as well. So thank you Mom, I love you. :) And a week from this coming Sunday I'll be calling!
Dad - Thank you for the answers to those questions, and I will watch for the package! Thanks for that, it will help a lot I think. And I hope you enjoyed your stay in Park City and that your conference went well, even if it wasn't too enjoyable haha. And I can't believe the Jazz actually made it! It's too bad that they ended up playing the Spurs, because they always lose to the Spurs, but maybe they'll pull off some kind of miracle... but I doubt it. I'll look forward to next week's update on them! And good luck with the garden, I hope it does well this year and that there's a good harvest this fall.
Marilee - I'll respond to your email separately.

And now the craziness of this past week!
I'll start with last Monday. That wasn't too bad. We didn't go bowling or play basketball or anything, and kind of just cleaned the house and did a few other things until we went out to work. We then visited the Gonzalez family, and then came home to some interesting news! The Zone Leaders, who lived with us, got the transfer information from the AP's, and so told us everything. We knew that Elder Hammer was going to San Germán to be a district leader, but I figured I would stay in Caguas to keep the area going and everything. Nope. I got the word that I was being transferred to Guayanilla, an area in the southwestern area of the island, next to Ponce. Basically, I was being moved to one of the hottest parts of the island. Ponce is the hottest, and Guayanilla is pretty close there. Also, one of the ZL's, Elder Campbell, was being transferred back to Ponce as well, so he's still one of my ZL's. But since we don't live with the ZL's anymore, I won't have easy access to the mail anymore unfortunately... so I'll get my mail whenever I can now. Besides that, the Ponce zone is far away from the office in Bayamón, even more so here in Guayanilla. But it's all good. More details in a bit about Guayanilla.
Tuesday though, I was still in Caguas with Elder Hammer, and we started out the day with studies and everything, and then had our ward correlation meeting. After, Elder Hammer and I went out and basically said goodbye to all our investigators, and passed by and either gave them the new missionaries' number in person or else wrote it on a card and left it for them. That night we went out with the bishopric and everything, and then came home to pack up. That's how the night finished.

Wednesday was transfer day, and I spent my morning packing everything else up. Around 10:30 we met at the Caguas Stake Center with a bunch of other missionaries, and transferred. My new companion is Elder Mangelson, and he is great! He's from Sacramento California, he's been out a year and a half, and he's the district leader here in Guayanilla and Yauco. He's a great missionary, and I think I'll be able to learn a lot from him. We also live with Elders Morrison and Williamson, who have been out 9 months, and work in Yauco. But we got here to Guayanilla (we also cover the pueblo next to us, Peñuelas), and then went out to work. What's cool is, I finally got to use my bike! However, since I hadn't used it, my rear end has been sore since Wednesday haha… but it's getting better. We also don't have a car in this area, which makes it hard to visit Peñuelas, because the only ways to get there are up twisty, curvy, mountain roads that are really skinny, which makes it dangerous to bike up. We walked most of the way on Thursday, and then got a ride from a member the rest of the way up, but it's hard to work over there without a car. Anyway, still with Wednesday, we visited the ward mission leader, and then took our investigator, Zondy, to institute that night. He's a really great guy, and he's got a baptismal date for the 12 of May! He is trying really hard to quit smoking, and once he gets that done, he'll be ready. He's a really great investigator, and is more proactive than any other investigator I had in Caguas. But yeah, that's basically how Wednesday was.
Thursday, like I said, we walked most of the way to Peñuelas, and then got a ride there from a member, after feeding us some Chinese Puerto Rican food (really weird stuff). We visited a recent convert up there, and then visited some of the members there. Then the high counselor over missionary work gave us a ride back down to Guayanilla, and that's basically how that day went.
Friday, we walked for most of the day, passing by some investigators and less actives and such, but nobody was home for whatever reason. So that day was kind of long haha... We went back out on the bikes later that night, and passed by a few more people, but weren't really able to teach many lessons.
Saturday was kind of the same deal, although we did go biking up in the hills at night for a little while, and found a pretty cool guy named Miguel. He couldn't really meet that night, so he said to come back on Sunday.
Sunday, we had the Ponce Stake Conference, so we had our meeting over in Ponce, where Pres. Alvarado was and everything. Also, we heard him speak, as well as the Ponce Stake President, and from the Santo Domingo Temple President. So overall, it was a good meeting. Afterward, we came home, ate, and then headed out to work. We passed by some people, and then later that night, we were able to visit with Miguel. We taught him a pretty decent lesson, but he said he wanted to learn "poco a poco" and didn't want to rush anything. So... that will be interesting to work with. But he's a pretty cool guy, and I think there's some potential there. Then we biked back in the dark! Don't worry, I have lights and everything, and the roads aren't too busy here, especially at night. And there are street lights, which help.
And now today. We found out from Salt Lake that there's going to be a delay on putting money on the cards, which means that today, after transfers, when none of us really have food, and we need to do laundry, we're all pretty much completely out of money and can't buy food or do laundry or anything haha. So... that will be an adventure. We'll hopefully get money soon though, and we may go shopping on a day that isn't P-day because we're going to need food. We'll see what happens though!

Anyway, Guayanilla is pretty crazy. It's definitely different than Caguas. Caguas was a big city, and Guayanilla has one main road. The rest is campo. It's a pretty agricultural area, with orchards of banana trees and such. We're close to the ocean, but we can't really see it from where we typically work. There's an urbanización called "La Playa" where we did some service the other day from where you can see the ocean, but the beaches aren't very nice or anything. It was cool to see the ocean though. Also, it's pretty dang hot here, and it's going to get hotter as we move into summer. However, I'm getting a nice tan, so that's a plus. :) It's definitely different biking everywhere, since before I was always just in the car because Elder Hammer couldn't ride; but it's been good, and it will help me lose some weight I hope.

But thank you again for the package (I can't listen to the CD's right now because we don't have a car... we have a DVD player in the house though, so I might listen to them there), I really appreciate it. The ties are great, and it's good to have a few more pairs of gym shorts and everything. But again, thank you so much for all your support, and it was so good to hear how you're all doing! I love you all very much, and pray for you every day. I hope you are all doing well, and I look forward to hearing from you again next week. I love you very much!
NOTE: So I forgot to mention that during my last day in Caguas, the sister missionaries wanted us to help them with a project that President had asked them to do. He wanted a statue or something of Jesus sitting on a bench with a sign next to it that said "This seat is for you" with www.mormon.org underneath, so people could take pictures with it. A pretty cool idea if done right. So we show up to the Caguas plaza that morning to help them, and I guess they had a less active lady help them out, and she had sculpted the head, hands, and feet out of clay. To be honest, I think it looked a little creepy. So then they made the body out of boxes, while Elder Hammer and I made the sandals haha. And then when it was all put together, we all got pictures with it. So that's what that is supposed to be.

From Puerto Rico with love,

--
Elder Kimball Ray Gardner
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

23 April 2012

Week 22: Bowling, Contacting and Stuff

Well my family, with only 2 days left in the transfer, I can say that I'm just about 2 transfers in! And also I am (in 2 days) officially a trained missionary in the field. :) Wow! There may be a slight chance that I could be training this next transfer too, but I won't find out until today or tomorrow. I'll let you know next week all that happened, because there's some changes going on. Elder Hammer, my trainer, is being transferred to San German to be a district leader over there! Also, I haven't yet received your package. It's probably waiting in the office, so the next time I'm up there or the ZL's are there, I'll get it. I did go to the office Friday to drop Elder Hammer off for a meeting, and got a package from the Scott family with candy in it and such, (very nice!) and then a very nice letter from the Bishop.

Mom - That's great to hear about Elder Hill, I'm glad he's still going strong in Peru! And that's weird to think that Marilee is going to activities and such, it still hasn't really sunk in... but it's good to hear that she's looking forward to working at the farm.

Dad - Thanks for the update on the Jazz and such, I hope they can make it! You'll have to let me know the entire playoff picture once the teams are set.

Marilee - I'll respond to your email separately. :)

Anyway, moving on to the week! Monday was P-day and Elder Foggin's birthday, so we went bowling again. I did better this time, scoring over 100 on my first game!

Tuesday was a normal missionary day, and we went out and worked, and were able to get a lesson in with Oscar Perez. We taught him about baptism and such, and he said that he hoped he could get an answer to be able to be baptized. It was a pretty good lesson, and I believe that he was touched. We'll keep working with him of course, and visiting him, and hopefully he'll soon accept a baptismal date.

Wednesday was nothing special either, just another missionary day. The morning was kind of slow, and everyone we passed by wasn't home. But the evening picked up, and we found some cool people while contacting in the streets, and were also able to visit a less-active family and teach them a little, and then passed by some other investigators. Overall, it wasn't a bad day, but just another typical day.

Thursday was interesting. We had a normal morning and afternoon and such, and then we passed by a guy that Elder Hammer contacted, named Pucho. We thought we were going to actually teach him, but it turned out that he only wanted us there to teach a couple of his friends. It was kind of weird to be honest haha.. oh well. We did get a couple of new investigators that way, so that was good.

Friday was kind of crazy, as all the DL's and ZL's had a meeting up in Bayamón. Elder Hammer didn't know he was supposed to be there until 10:00 that morning, so Elder Duclos and I took him up there, and then came back and worked in Caguas until that night, which was BYU-Idaho's Noche de Jazz at the Botanical Gardens here in Caguas. We were ushers and stuff there, and it was all right haha. I'll try and send some pictures.

Saturday was where it got interesting. We did some service that morning, and then we went and passed by some people trying to get them to go to the baptism the hermanas were having for their investigator. Nobody could, so we couldn't go either. So we visited this guy named Edgar, who speaks English and seemed really nice. He had told us to come by then, and so we did. He had a friend over though, and so we didn’t really want to interrupt. We told him hi, and he came out to talk to us for a few minutes. And then his friend came out, and said that he was from Idaho, and that because of the army, he’d been in Puerto Rico for 14 years. He was really nice and stuff, and talked to us just about life and what not, but then he kind of started asking some interesting questions, like about our belief of eternal progression and what not. To make a long story short, he basically told us that he’s a pastor of some church, and that he’s done a lot of research on other churches. He knew a TON about our church, and used a lot of the Bible to “support” his claims that our church is false. Now, it’s hard enough answering simple questions on the spot, but when talking about that kind of doctrine and everything, and then having a ton of questions asked, it’s hard to come up with answers on the spot. He asked a ton of more questions, too, that we couldn’t answer right there, and basically “invited us to take a step back and investigate more about our church.” Anyway, it was just interesting, and really tough to just sit there and not have any answers for him there on the spot. He’s a very learned man according to the world, but has no faith whatsoever. And that’s where he falls, because without faith, and without asking the only infallible source of knowledge, he’ll never really know. Anyway, I’m doing great still, but any advice, counsel, thoughts, or anything, I’d love to hear. :)

So yeah, that was Saturday. Sunday was okay; we had no investigators in church, so we couldn’t really stay after Sacrament meeting, so we went out to work. We taught this older man out in the country, which was interesting, and did a ton of walking out in those hills because our car was almost out of gas, and we couldn’t buy any on Sunday haha, so that was interesting. It was hot, and I was sweating, and I was dead tired when I got home, but it was still a pretty decent day.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting week, and I’ve learned a lot more, and I believe my testimony has been strengthened. I’ve had some really great learning experiences that have shown me how I can improve, and what I can do to help people understand better where we come from. It’s been great to learn and improve every day, and I’m thankful for this opportunity I have.

Anyway, I love you all, and pray for you always. Thank you so much for your support and for your love and prayers. You are the best family ever, and just think – only like 21 days until Mother’s Day! And you know what that means? Phone call! :) Thank you again, and I look forward to hearing from you next week!
--
Elder Kimball Ray Gardner
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

16 April 2012

Week 21: Crazy Week!

My dear family! It has been quite the crazy week! I don't have a ton of time to write today, so I'm going to have to keep it a bit shorter, sorry! But it was a good week, and we were able to take a little break one day, but I'll get to that a little later. First, to respond to you all.

Mom - I cannot believe that my little sister is a beehive now. I thought about that the other day, and it blew my mind. I can't believe that she's already in Young Women's! And that she's already having activities and everything! That's so crazy. I hope she's enjoying it though. :) But thank you for your kind words and for your support. I love you!
Dad - As long as the ukulele serves its purpose, I'm fine with that. For all I care, she can keep it! :) I know it has my name on it and all, but it can be hers if she wants it. And thank you for sending that stuff, I know it might have been an inconvenience, and I don't think I'll need anything more, so thank you so much. And you had better send me pictures of the zombies and everything once you get them! I can only imagine that Mom is starting to freak out a little bit haha...
Marilee - I will write to you separately. :)

Alright, so here's the week as fast as I can type it! I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense, but we have to leave in about half an hour because the library is closing. So here we go.


Monday was a normal p-day. We went and played some TALL Puerto Ricans in basketball, and got beat pretty bad haha. We almost had 'em the last game, but they made the last second shot. :\ Oh well. That night we did trade-offs and I went with Elder Waters to an FHE while Elder Hammer went with Elder Campbell. So that was kinda cool.

Tuesday was a great day! We had our Easter Conference as a whole mission, and we went up to San Juan, where we received some instruction from the Alvarados and then Pres. Alvarado's counselors, and then we had a cool cultural presentation from the countries represented in our mission, and then we headed for Old San Juan, which is the fort that the Spanish built here forever ago. It was really cool! We saw some cruise ships, and one was the Celebrity Solstice, their newest one!! I got a picture of it, and I'll be sending it home. Memories! :) Anyway, the fort was really cool too, and it was great to finally see the ocean because I never get to see it, working in Caguas, which is in the middle of the island. At the fort, there was a cool program with a bunch of Puerto Rican dancers who danced some of their cultural dances. It was really cool, and I'll try and send pictures to you of those, too. But yeah, Tuesday was a really great day!





Wednesday morning Elder Hammer and I had a training meeting up in Bayamón, which was really good. We learned how to better plan our days so that we can find people more effectively and also work better with the members. It was good. That night we were able to go out with the Aaronic Priesthood from our ward, and visited some of the less actives and other investigators. That was a cool experience! It was good to go out and talk with some of the less actives in our ward and invite them back to church.
Thursday we planned for a couple of lessons, but nobody followed through, unfortunately. So basically we contacted that whole day, and passed by a bunch of people who weren't home. We did go to the Gonzalez' home and visited with them for a bit, which was nice. We shared a message of missionary work with them to get them excited to help the missionaries.
Friday and Saturday were both about the same. No lessons or anything, and basically we just contacted and found some cool people in the streets. We did set some return appointments with them, which was really good. We have a bunch of citas this week planned, so hopefully we have a little more success this week! The only difference between the two days is that Saturday rained a TON. We got DRENCHED. I was soaked all the way through. My scriptures got wet and a few other books in my backpack got wet. But it was fun haha. :) It was kind of cold and whatnot, but it was good. Needless to say, we weren't able to contact too well in the rain, given that the people here are scared of the rain. Unfortunately we weren't able to teach Bryan either, because finals week is here. :( He also had to study so much that he couldn't come to church... so that was bad news for us. And basically, that's how Saturday was. And then yesterday was Fast Sunday here, and after church and lunch, we went out to work, and passed by a few people who once again couldn't let us in, and then did some contacting. We did find a pretty cool family though, and they really seem promising. We're going back this week, which will be good. :)

Other than that, that's the week! I apologize again for the lack of detail. It's a holiday today in Puerto Rico so everything's closed, and we're forced to come here where they close soon. Next week should be better, but I hope that all is going well at home! I love you very much, and pray for you every day. Thank you, as always, for your support and for what you do for me. You are probably the best family in the world, without whom I would be lost. :) Thank you so much, and I look forward to hearing from you again next week!

With much love,
--

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

09 April 2012

Week 20: Semana Santa

Well family, here we are again! Another week has come and gone, and this one was even more special because it was Holy Week here in Puerto Rico. Holy cow. I had no idea it would be so intense haha. I'll get to it in a bit, but it was quite the interesting week, and I have a lot to tell you about it! But first . . .

Mom - Thank you for the pictures!! It looks like you had a great time! I hope you thought of me while riding Pirates and the Haunted Mansion and such! But I'm glad you had a good time, it seemed like you were enjoying yourselves. :) Also, I don't know when Ben goes to the MTC, so I don't think he's there now, I just think that he just got his call.
Dad - Sadly I am still waiting for that experience on "Small World," but Mom sent some pictures haha :) And your trip to California/Vegas sounds like it was great! I assume then that TSO didn't play any Christmas or anything? And it was at Universal? That's awesome, it sounds like it was a great time.

Marilee - I responded to your email separately.

Anyway, so, Holy Week. Just to set the stage a bit, pretty much everyone in Puerto Rico is Catholic. And if they're not Catholic, they're Pentecostal. In any case, pretty much everyone here is religious and believes in Christ. So for pretty much the whole week, everyone was on this religious kick, and they were just kind of in a fighting mood haha, which was pretty funny.

Anyway, to start with last Monday, we went bowling after we got lunch, and then did some shopping until 6:00, when our P-day ends. We then visited Roy, and watched the Restoration movie with him. We didn't have a lot of time left after though, so we didn't get to discuss it too much with him. :\ That was too bad... But he seemed to enjoy the movie, we just didn't get to talk about it with him.
On Tuesday, we did some contacting pretty much all day, and in the evening, we did some intercambios with the bishopric and such here. I went out with the Elders' Quorum President, and visited an older less-active man, while Elder Hammer took the bishop to one of our investigators. I guess it was a really great lesson, which was good, and it was good that it came from the bishop. They invited him to church, and he accepted! That was definitely the highlight of Tuesday.
Wednesday was Marilee's birthday, and basically all that happened that day was that we contacted all day, and our appointments fell through with people when we passed by. It was no bueno haha. We passed by quite a few people, but nobody was able to let us in or anything, so we just ended the day contacting. No lessons, no nothing.
Thursday was just another big contacting day, although we did drop of a Book of Mormon to a lady we had contacted earlier, so we'll see what happens there. I also found a couple of cool people, one who seems really promising! His name is Luis Santiago, and we're going to pass by him again this coming Saturday. He seems really interested and I think there's some potential there! That was definitely a highlight to that day as well.
And then Good Friday hit. Holy cow. When we left to go out and work, the streets were EMPTY. When we passed by churches, they were just filled with people. We passed through the city plaza, and they had put up three crosses. I guess they reenact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. Everyone was just in church all day, or else at home resting. Anyway, it was just weird to me because it was seriously like Christmas here. And nobody wanted to talk to us because it was Good Friday, so we didn't get a lot of contacts. That night, the church had an activity called "La Noche de Pan y Miel" which they had in celebration of the birth of Christ (on April 6). That was cool, but kind of weird haha. Just because it seemed to have some kind of Catholic undertones to it. Maybe it's because it coincided with Good Friday, but it was just kind of weird. At the end, they broke some bread and passed it around and we dipped it in some honey and ate it. It was just weird. So that was Good Friday!
Saturday was a normal day, and we did a ton of contacting that day to reach our Foundation. We were able to teach Bryan though, and taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson, and he said he'd pray about being baptized. He also committed to come to church with us!
 So on Sunday, we drove to his house so he could follow us to church, and he was all ready and everything. :) He came for all 3 hours, and seemed to enjoy it. He didn't really say much, but he seemed to have a pretty good time. We'll be following up with him this week and seeing how he liked it and such. It was good though, because it was an Easter meeting, and they talked about the Resurrection and such. It was a good Sunday, and a good church meeting. :) Then last night we went to an American family's house for dinner. That was great! It was good to eat something besides rice and beans and have a little taste of home haha. :) They had Kool-aid and potato salad and ham and salad, and then some chocolate pie and ice cream. So good. And then we had a little lesson with Robby, another of our investigators last night. It went pretty well.

Anyway, that's basically the week! Needless to say, I'm glad Holy Week is over, because now people can go back to being their old selves. Anyway, we'll see how this week goes, I guess! We have an Easter Conference tomorrow, and then Elder Hammer and I have a training meeting on Wednesday, so not a lot of time left over to get our Foundation and such. But I think it will be a good week. :)

As always, I hope that everything is going well back home. I hope you're all doing great, and that you had a great time in California and Vegas. :) I love you all so much, and I pray for you every day, both morning and night. I pray that you are being taken care of and provided for, and I look forward to hearing from you all again next week. I love you all so very much!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Kimball Ray Gardner
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 19: General Conference

Well, another week has come and gone, and this time we got to watch conference! I must say, I got so much more out of this conference than ever before. It was really great.  But first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! Yesterday was your birthday, and I did remember. :) I hope you had a good birthday and that you're having a great time in California. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARILEE! Your birthday is in a couple of days, and like I said in the email I wrote you, I'll be wearing purple for you that day! :)

Anyway, last Monday, we did all our P-day stuff, and then went and played some basketball. It was SO hot that day, more hot than usual, and so we didn't play for too long haha. Then we cleaned the house, and then Elder Hammer and I went out and did some work. We contacted for a bit, and then went to the Gonzalez' for dinner.
Tuesday, we once again did quite a bit of contacting. Oh, and by the way, it rained literally a TON this week. I swear, if it would rain for a couple of days as much as it rains here for one day, it would end the droughts in the western states in no time. There are some days that we were seriously driving through a river. And it's supposed to be the dry season! Anyway, so we did a lot of walking in the rain this week, and passed by a few people, but weren't able to teach any investigators or anything. :\ We did go out with the bishopric that night though, and visited some less active members, which was really pretty cool.

On Wednesday, after studies, we did some service again for an investigator of the Zone Leaders. That was pretty fun, and we chopped down a huge tree with machetes haha. I'll try and send pictures if I have time. Then we contacted for the afternoon, and then ate at the Sanabria's. I love Puerto Rican food. Seriously, it is some pretty good food. Thursday was a little bit better lesson wise. We still contacted a bunch, and it was raining again, but we were able to teach Oscar Perez, and answer some of his questions. It was a good little visit, and I think he's making some progress. We'll see where that goes.

Friday followed the same basic pattern, and we pretty much just contacted all day to reach our Foundation before Conference (or we couldn't go). So that was stressful, but it was good. And so that brings me to Saturday and Sunday! The Super Bowl of the Mission, and All-Star Weekend.... General Conference. It was great! We went to the Caguas Stake Center to watch it with our Zone, and it was good. There was a room set apart just for the English speakers, so we were able to watch it even in English. :) And I know that you haven't yet seen it, but I must say that it was a very good conference. I'd like to share a couple impressions I had.

First, the family must be even more under attack now than ever, because the basic theme for the conference was about families and parenting. There were a ton of talks given about how to keep our families strong, and also how parents can raise their children in more righteousness. There were also a couple of talks given about forgiving others when they trespass against us, and to not hold grudges, which were really good.

Also, it seemed to me like the end is drawing even nearer. I don't know why, but when Pres. Monson first stood up and talked, it seemed like he was warning us even more about the impending end of our world. Also, Elder Holland in his talk said straight out "the end is near." So just some thoughts, but to me it seems like the end is drawing nearer and nearer, and will be here faster than we believe. And by the way, I missed sitting with you all and watching it together, especially during the Priesthood Session when I should have been there with Dad. But it was still great. :)

And that basically brings us to today. We had a mini-zone council to talk about Foundation, and then had weekly planning, and then came out to email. The university was closed, so we had to come to a library, but it all worked out.

But that's basically the week. General Conference was really great, and I hope you will take the time to watch it together as a family, since that, like I said, seemed to be the main emphasis of this conference. You will enjoy it, and I know that by listening to the prophet's voice, we can all be blessed. Thank you for your love and support, and I hope that all is well. Have a great time in California!! Send me pictures! I'd love to see how you're all doing, and what you did while in California. :) I love you much, and pray for you always. Thank you so much again for your support and for all you do. And have a happy Easter this Sunday! I will miss you that day, but I hope you have a great Easter. :)

With more love than you can imagine,
Elder Kimball Ray Gardner
Puerto Rico San Juan Mission