Week 76: Mother's Day Accomplished

Well, it was great talking to you yesterday! I had a great time and it's hard to believe that it was the last phone call. Wow. It was a good one though. :) But yeah, I hope you had a great Mother's Day, Mom!

Mom - So I think your hair looks pretty good! I was expecting it to be a lot shorter, so at first it didn't look all that much different because in my mind I had pictured it shorter, but it looks pretty good I'd say. It looks like Elder Thomas is having a great time taming llamas in Colombia haha... and Elder Barnes looks like he's having a blast in Blanding! Oh, and the cookie looked good.
Dad - Well thanks for the letter, I like it a lot. Marilee seems a lot older, so that was a bit different for me. She sounded pretty good:)

Anyway, not much more to say after all was said last night haha... um... what else happened this week... it rained a lot. We're in May and this is the month where it always rains, so we got a little bit wet. Um... oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, on Friday we went down to Ponce for a choir performance for the Celebracion Latinoamericana, and it was scheduled for an outdoor venue. We got all set up and ready to go, and 15 minutes before we were supposed to start, it started POURING rain. So everyone left. I was pretty bummed because there were members from Guayanilla coming, but they didn't because of the rain. :( So we made that trip to Ponce for nothing pretty much. (sigh) Oh well… such is life, right? Um... what else... not much, just the baptism coming up on Sunday! That will be cool, and I'll be sure to send some pics. I don't think I took any more pictures since last week, but if I did I'll send them right now. :)

Anyway, it was great hearing from you last night, and here we go with the home stretch… hard to think about and hard to believe. Wow. But that's that, and I look forward to reading about your week next week! Love you tons and hope you have a great week!!

Con muchisimo amor,

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 25: Great Mother's Day

My dear, dear family. Might I say, it was GREAT to hear from you last night!! It was definitely the highlight of the day, week, transfer! It was so good to hear how you're all doing and to just sit and talk with you all. :) I loved it.

Mom - Thank you for the pictures! And that's pretty scary about the break-ins... I hope that it doesn't happen to you guys.
Dad - About your mission experiences, that is cool! Do you happen to remember your apartment building and classroom building numbers? Just curious, 'cause maybe we were in the same buildings! Not likely, but maybe haha. It's cool to read about your experiences though, and I look forward to reading more.
Marilee - I just replied to your email. :)

Anyway, just a quick review of the week, since I think I basically told you everything big that happened on the phone.

Monday was P-day, and that night we talked to a crazy man named Benny, who believes he's had a supernatural, extraterrestrial experience. He's absolutely out of his mind haha.. so... we're not going back there.

Tuesday was an okay day. That night we drove to Ponce for a "center of strength" where the members go out with the missionaries to less actives, but there weren't enough members there, so we had to drive back. It kind of destroyed our night, and we weren't able to work that night. It was dumb. But the idea behind it is good, they just need more participation.

Wednesday we rode our bikes a lot, and rode out for a while in our area, and we contacted a bunch of people. It was hot and I got a little burnt, but it's okay, I'm getting tan from it. :) Nothing too big happened that day though.

Thursday also was kind of slow (it's been a slower week for us), although we did get a member to come with us to Zondy's house. We taught him a good lesson to review the Restoration. After, we packed up and headed all the way up to Bayamon, and stayed the night with the AP's. That was interesting, and Elder Mangelson and I got the one room without A/C. Blech. I hardly slept that night haha... but then Friday morning was Zone Conference, and it went from about 8:00 to 6:00. It was LOOOONG. But it was good, and we received a lot of instruction. It was really cool too, because Pres. Glazier was there from the DR! (He was the CCM President there). So that was really cool to see him again, and when he taught with Pres. Alvarado, it was so intense in there, and the things they were trying to tell us were pretty geared to our work on the field.

Saturday, we had a big day planned, but a lot of citas fell through and whatnot, so we ended up only getting a few lessons in, one with Zondy. That was really cool though, because we taught him about the Priesthood authority, and then we asked if he wanted a blessing to overcome smoking, and he said yes. So we gave him a blessing of strength, and he said he felt really good. So hopefully he's progressing and doing better. He didn't make it to church yesterday because he was sick, but I think he's going to do better. This morning we had our "district meeting" with the whole zone here in Ponce, and Pres. Alvarado was there, and basically Elder Mangelson and I figured that we need to focus more on what Zondy needs to do now, rather than what the end result will be. It was a good meeting today, and I think it helped a lot to get us refocused on what he really needs. But yeah, that brings us to today!

Anyway, I'm sorry this was a kind of shorter, but the other elders seem to be in a bit of a rush. Just know that I love you all oh so very much! And again, it was so good to talk to you yesterday and hear your voices again! It was great to hear how you're all doing and to hear what's going on in everyone's lives. I keep you in my prayers always, and I hope that everything stays well with you. I love you all so much, and thank you so much for all your support and everything. It means so much to me. :)

With more love than I can express,

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission