Week 99: Speak Like a Puerto Rican

Well... that's probably the most emails I've gotten my whole mission! Again, thanks to everyone who wrote me. :) 

Mom - I just have to say that I love you Mom! You and Dad pretty much just crack me up :) Anyway, it was alright, kind of hot. No cake, but I don't really care anymore. :) I'm glad that you're doing well Mom. Please try not to can any of my things... I'd really appreciate that. Speaking of, I'll be sending home a package with some stuff (for me) that won't fit in my luggage. So if you would be so kind as to place that package in my room,that would be great. :) And don't can it! Te amo mamá, y será un gran día cuando nos reunimos de nuevo. Trato de no pensar mucho en aquel día todavia, porque me falta mucho tiempo! Pero el tiempo se está acabando. Te amo mucho! :)

Dad - Well, I counted 17 emails... but that's still a record high!! Thanks again :) I'm sorry the Halloween things aren't going as well as planned haha... but I'm glad you're still having fun, especially with Marilee. :) Your line about the socks made me laugh so hard! That's pretty funny. Well… wow, I can't believe time is going by so fast... October's almost over... :( WHERE did all the time go?? Anyway, I probably won't know what time to come get me on the 3rd until probably December 2nd haha... Anyway, I love you Dad. Thanks for everything you have taught me. :)

 

Guacamayo

ANYWAY so the highlight of yesterday was getting told by this Puerto Rican lady we contacted that we should come back when I had learned to speak in a Puerto Rican accent. Charming, right? Little does she know that I can indeed speak in a Puerto Rican accent, but she wouldn't be able to understand me if I spoke in it ;) Hehe no, we did have a good lesson and dinner with this sweet member family yesterday, and that was pretty cool. 

It was actually a pretty normal week, even though we had a few meetings. We had two on Tuesday with the new missionaries and trainers, and then one on Thursday morning with some of the zone and district leaders. They were pretty sweet meetings, and we learned a lot! 

Anyway, I just want to close with my testimony that I know that this church is the only true church on the face of the earth. It is the Kingdom of God which has been established in preparation of Jesus Christ's Second Coming. It's true that other churches have parts of the truth, but there is, as there was when Christ was on the earth, only ONE church that has every last tiny piece of truth that there is, and it is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is not a church formed by man, and it's not a reformed church - it is Christ's church here on the earth and it is lead and guided by Jesus Christ Himself through His prophet, Thomas S. Monson. His authority is here. Revelation is here. A prophet and 12 Apostles, just like it says in Ephesians 2:19 and 4:11-14. It's all here just like it was when Jesus walked the earth. I know it with great surety, and I know that He lives.

Well, we'll just keep plugging along. Thanks for everything you guys. :) I'll be seeing you pretty soon! I love you!

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 47: What the Week!

Well, what the week haha. Wow. I seriously feel as if we've just been battling the adversary all week long, more so than usual.
Mom - I'm glad you're doing okay then!  And Christmas is around the corner, so I'll do my best to find you each something cool. :) But thanks for the happy birthday! My "golden birthday" as it's called haha, turning 20 on the 20th. And I hope you have fun in the next few days! HALLOWEEN!! Haha :) Love you, Mom. :)
Dad - the bridges look good! I hope everything ends up really great for Halloween! You should send pictures next week (or when you can) of all the stuff out. I'm excited to hear about how it all works out! Those Haunted Houses sounds great!! Hopefully they'll still be around when I get back, because I'd love to go and visit them. And darn, I was hoping BYU could pull it out against Notre Dame :( Oh well… they only have to be good when I'm there haha ;)

Marilee - I will be writing back to you shortly. :)

Anyway, WOW what a week. We did get a referral from the Elders in Adjuntas of a family of 9 that they had been teaching that moved to Peñuelas. NINE!! We were ecstatic! And then we found out that they live in this mountainous, hilly area called Rucio (each municipio has barrios in it, and one is Rucio inside of Peñuelas), and it's a little far. But we went there and we looked all over for them, and couldn't find them. :( I was pretty sad. We still haven't found them. And all week, we called members, and a few times actually set up times to go with them, but almost each time, they weren't there when we went to pick them up, or something else happened, or else the investigators weren't even there. Frustrating.

Then the adventure began on Saturday morning. We were supposed to have a baptism Saturday evening; the baptism of Carmelo Borrero. His interview was scheduled for Saturday morning, so we went with the Yauco elders to find him, and he knew we were coming, but he wasn't at his house. So we looked all over the place and finally found him. He said to come back at 3:00 to do the interview, because he was going to the clinic. Okay. So we came back at 3:00, with the baptism scheduled for 5:00. He wasn't there again!! We searched high and low, praying, being led by the Spirit, until finally Elder Durfee and I (our companions went to fill the font) just decided to wait outside his house. A few minutes later he walked by and motioned to us to go to his house. By now it's 4:50. He was interviewed and he passed, and then took a quick shower and we went to the church.

But wait, it gets even better.

Bishop's brother had had a heart attack, so bishop was in Yauco in the hospital and wasn't going to be able to come to the baptism. He was the one who was supposed to baptize Carmelo!! And Carmelo was pretty upset about that. On top of that, his girlfriend, the daughter of bishop, and him had broken up like, Friday night, and they were fighting and there was this whole big situation, and so he told us that it hurt him to look at her and he didn't want to be baptized with that kind of anxiety and sadness and frustration in his heart. So we let him go. The font filled, his girlfriend crying, and he just walked home. But the members that did come sang happy birthday and we ate some sandwiches and stuff. But it just wasn't the same without the baptism.

What's left of a cookies and cream cake.

So Sunday morning we pass by his house before church, and we're baptizing him this Saturday now, so we hope and pray that everything works well for that. Basically the way I look at this week is that the enemy worked really hard to just destroy everything, and basically won. It was tough. But Sunday afternoon made up for it, at least a bit. We went with the first counselor to that sweet family I told you about last week, and had a really great lesson with the Mom, daughter, and one of the sons. It was a great lesson, and she said she would try and come to church! So that was sweet. :) And then last night I went to the Santiago's house and they had bought a cake for me, and we sang and had a good time. :) So no worries, I had a decent birthday. :)

Anyway, a crazy week. I'm hoping that this week is a bit better. It looks better, and I'm really hoping that it turns out so! But I thank you for your prayers and for everything that you do. :) I love you all so much! Thank you for your support!! I love you!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission