Week 73: New Companion

Well howdy y'all! It sounds like things are just ... well... plugging along like you said haha. It's too bad the Jazz are out, but that's alright. Better a lottery pick than a first round sweep I think. I pray for you all the time!

Anyway, it was a bit of a crazy week, and transfers have just hit. I'm still here as ZL in the Metro Zone, but with a new companion, Elder Caballero. He's from Panama, and President's asked me to train him as a new zone leader. That will be an adventure for sure! Besides that there were a bunch of changes in the zone, and a lot have been transferred, and we're getting a bunch of new missionaries tomorrow, so that will be a lot of fun! Haha but yeah... this past week was pretty crazy.

I went to another area, Caparra and Levittown on Tuesday on my assignment from President to work with the new missionaries, and that went pretty well. It was a cool experience, and it was pretty fun. We had a leadership training meeting on Thursday, which was pretty intense. There's a big push for planning right now in the mission, which is really good, because it will help us stay focused and use our time better.

Then for the weekend, with what time I had to work in Santurce, we had some cool lessons, including a really powerful one with a part-member family about the Book of Mormon. They've been pretty unwilling to read it, but they said they'd read and pray about it afterwards, so.. yeah! That was good. When I wasn't in Santurce though, I was at the Celebracion Latinoamericana, and we had two more performances: one in Arecibo (our best one yet, at a super cool theater there), and another in Caguas. That was at the Stake Center (my first chapel!) and LOTS of food. :) Our last one will be on May 10 in Ponce, and I'm really excited for that one, to hopefully see more members and converts from Guayanilla again! :) 

Anyway, that's about it for the week. Transfer craziness, and we'll see how it all works out! Thanks for everything you do, and thank you for the package - the Girl Scout Cookies were a great touch! "This ain't no girl scout cookie! Roger out!" :) Love you all, and I hope everything works out for you this week. I look forward to your words next week, and I'll try and have all the info about what time and how we'll be talking on Mother's Day. :)

I love you all so very much,
Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 72: ¡Echamo' pa'lante! (Let's go forward)

My dear family! I'm so happy to hear that things are going well. As I heard the talk from Elder Cook, something clicked in my head, and I felt like he was giving the talk that we needed to hear. I've really come to understand on my mission the importance of the prophets, and what their role is in this life. I've come to appreciate them more, and to love their words. Before my mission I didn't really follow them as much. I thought of them as more "guidelines than actual rules" ;) ... but I've come learn and know for myself that the words that they speak are the words of God. I love Conference, and I just love hearing from them now. :) It's pretty great, right??

This week on top of my zone leader responsibilities, I had a special assignment to go to the Toa Baja zone (our neighbor zone to the west) to go and visit all the new missionaries and their trainers and to see which new missionaries could train. That was a really cool experience, and I had a great time. I witnessed some really fantastic miracles, and I was privileged and blessed to be a part of helping a companionship work out their differences and start working together as a team. :) It was really great. And that area of the island is beautiful! I'll try and send some pics if I have some time. :) 

Also this last week we had our first 2 performances of the "Celebración Latinoamericana" which has the Mission Choir, el Coro de Campanas, and a dance group from the church here. It's a cool program and includes a bunch of songs and dances from all over Central and South America. There's a SWEET song and dance from Argentina that I think you'd both love, and I'll try and record it at the next one so I can show you someday. :) Way cool. There's stuff from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, the DR, and of course, Puerto Rico. It's a lot of fun, and we had our performances in San Juan and Mayagüez this week. 

Also, at the second performance, I ran into Carlos, Rosie, Gladys, Pedro, and their family down there!! They were investigators that I found and taught in Guayanilla before I got transferred to Santurce!!! They have all been baptized since, and Carlos and Rosie have been married. :) :) :) I was SOO happy to see them, and I got a picture with them too. :) YES!

Anyway, that's about it for the week, not too spectacular, but a little crazy. :)

Know that I pray for you always, and keep you in my heart. I love you all so very much :) I love you Marilee and hope you're doing great!

Until next week my dear family, I love you! ¡Echamo' pa'lante!

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission