Hey there family, I hope you're all
doing great! I'm going to respond to all your emails right now to save time,
since I'm already over time. Whoops! But today Puerto Rico celebrated Veteran's
Day, so everything was closed and we couldn't do email normally. Anyway, here
we go!
Mom - I am also pretty upset with
the election results... we found out Wednesday morning, and I was devastated.
None of us missionaries were very happy. Also, here in Puerto Rico they elected
the equivalent of the democratic party governor, and booted out the republican.
Yet, they voted for statehood, which is the "progresante" or
republican party stand. Interesting. But I wasn't happy with that change
either, because I thought Fortuno would be better than Alejandro, but nothing.
:( Oh well... life moves on, right? Anyway, I haven't been transferred yet!
Haha I've been here in Guayanilla for over 6 months now, that's more than 1/4
of my mission by the time it's over. But it's been good. :) We'll see what
happens on the 21st, the day of transfers! And that looks like it was a ton of
snow! Anyway, I hope you're doing alright, and know that I love you!
Dad - Well, the Halloween pictures
look sweet! I like the new hearse inflatable! Anyway, I'm glad the Jazz beat
the Lakers and the Suns!! And that BYU finally won one, goodness. And the
mission experiences sound great, and I'm glad you had a good time in Formosa! 4
baptisms is pretty sweet. And I honestly cannot believe that the year mark is
just around the corner. Elder Paxman hit it this week, and mine is in a few
days. Yikes!
Marilee - Well don't let the snow
get you down too much! Go out and have some fun! It's still hot and sunny here,
although it rains a bunch too. But anyway I'll just keep riding around in the
hot tropical sunshine! ;) Haha anyway, have fun in the snow!!
Anyway, an interesting week. A lot
of piano to be honest. The mission has put together a small choir to sing
around the island (our first performance is the 25th in a Catholic church!) and
I've been asked to be the pianist. So I spent half of Wednesday up in San Juan
in a practice, and I am spending basically all of Thursday up in Guaynabo doing
the same. There are some really cool songs, and one is a mix of Canon and the
First Noel. In Spanish! Really pretty. :) Also, Friday we had a really cool
thing that I wish you could have seen. We had a concierto misional en Ponce,
and Elder and Hermana Tesch invited me to play for them, so I played for about
half an hour. I played Fur Elise, Waterfall, the Pink Panther (and
improvisation), a John Williams Medley, some song I made up, a Pirates of the
Caribbean Medley, and then I asked for somebody's favorite hymn and improvised
on it and tried to bear my testimony through it. After, all the missionaries
there sang Called to Serve. It was really cool. I missed you guys a bit that
night, but I still had a blast. :) I have a few pictures, but I left my memory
card in the house. :( So… next week haha.
Besides that, we had a hard time
with investigators this week, because there is this couple who said they'd be
at the concert, but didn't show up. And then they said they'd come to church
and didn't show up there either. :\ We'll keep working with them though, and I
hope it all works out well.
This week though, we have a fun
activity planned for here in Guayanilla, and we're going to do a Tree of Life
activity. I'll try and take a bunch of pictures of that, because it will be
super fun. :) Haha anyway, besides all that, not much to report, and I'm kind
of short on time at that (I'm 20 minutes over... whoops). But yeah, thank you
so much! Oh, and one more thing, my oil vial key chain that holds my
consecrated oil broke, and I lost the part with the oil in it so... if you
could send a new one, I would greatly appreciate it! I don't know, maybe it
couldn't handle the encounter it had with the demon. Who knows. Either way, I
do need a new one haha. :)
Anyway, thank you so much for all
that you do, and for all your support. :) I love you all so much, and can't
believe that a year ago I was making those preparations to leave. Wow! I can't
believe it. The time passes so fast. Pretty soon I'll be taking the next steps
of life! Terrifying! Haha no, just kidding. Kind of. Anyway, thanks for
everything, and have a great week! I love you all!!
Con muchisimo amor,
Elder
Kimball Ray Gardner
Puerto
Rico San Juan Mission
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