Week 75: Just Another Week in Paradise

It's good to hear that things are just being normal for a little while.

Mom - You caught me just in time! I was just emailing you guys haha. I'm not exactly sure what to think about you chopping off your hair, but we'll see what I think next week haha... oh wow. I have heard that song you're talking about (Holding Hands Around the World), so I know what you mean! It's a really great song. :) And yes, I do remember Jonathan! He's a great guy. He lives in Yauco, and I started teaching him with Elder Durfee when we were down there. Good times. :)

Dad – About  the phone call on Sunday, I'm thinking that we're going to try at about 5:00 our time, which would be 2:00 your time. However, it could be any time after that. Just be ready and be watching from 1:00 and onward, although I think it'd be too early at 1:00 for you. So I'm planning on going to the member's house at 5:00, and it could be any time after, I don't know what my companion's plan is, but we'll figure it all out, I'm pretty sure we'll have the skype all figured out.

 

Vega Baja

Anyway, this past week was pretty crazy, we had our last zone conference with President Alvarado, and it was pretty intense. He talked about repentance and then about planning, so it was a good meeting. Really long, but really good. On Friday we had a Mission Leaders' Council (now replacing the Zone Leaders' Council) and that was pretty intense also, but really good. Besides that, we had a bunch of really great lessons this week, and we have a few people that can be baptized this month! One of them is named Francisco P…, and he's about 18 years old. He's great, and I am confident that he'll get baptized this month. There's also a guy named Modesto that can get baptized, along with a few others. 

It's great serving in Puerto Rico, and I don't think I could have asked for a better mission. It's really intense, and very hard and stressful, but at the same time so rewarding, and I feel free and happy and at peace with the world. :) I see the world differently, and I've learned a lot of things that I need to keep doing when this December rolls around.

Anyway, know that I love you all so very much. My prayers are always with you, and I look forward to Sunday! It's crazy to think that that's the last phone call before I see you again. Wow! Crazy how the time flies... Anyway, love you lots, and I'll talk to you soon. :) 

Con muchisimo amor
--

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 33: Good News

My dear family, 

Well, it has been quite the week. It has basically flown by. I'll get to why in a little bit, but it's been good.  

Mom - Mom, mom, mom. You fell down again? I'm glad it's nothing worse than a bru though! It could have been much much worse, I know. And I can only imagine the heat, I'm glad I don't have to deal.... oh wait, I do. Ha ha and the rain doesn't help at all here, it just makes it more humid. And that bottle looks great! So does Dad! Ha ha, but I'm glad you're doing all right, and thanks for the pictures! I love pictures of you guys. :) (Though I did not get the one of Marilee in the garden...?)

Dad - I was able to open July letter, but not the May one. I liked the July one, though! I'm sorry it's been kind of hot over there, but I feel your pain, just like I was telling mom. Everything's all right, and it's been quite the adventure! But know that I'm doing all right now.

Marilee - no email this week?? What?? Anyway, hope you're doing great little sis! Only a month and a half left of summer!

Alright, here we go. So last week I was in the mission office in Bayamon with hardly any sleep and writing to family. After that, we... waited some more. Pres. Alvarado didn't show up until about 5:00. And what happened was Elder Morrison and Elder Mangelson went out to work in Guaynabo with the APs. Elder Durfee and I stayed to talk to President. Basically in my interview we talked about how I needed to stop being a follower, and start being the leader he wants me to be, and the one Heavenly Father knows I can become. He also talked about that with Elder Durfee, who was Elder Morrison's companion. Then he talked to us together, and told us to pack our things back into the car (just ours), to take the car to Yauco, and then once we got there, to break down the bunk beds so that there were only two. So now, us 2 are working in Guayanilla AND Yauco. A ward AND a branch. 4 pueblos: Guanica, Yauco, Guayanilla, and Peñuelas. Wow. He also said we are to only speak Spanish to each other, and that we need to get up at 5:30 every morning to have an extra hour of study time for the 12 week in-field training program. So that's what we did. So this whole past week has been crazy trying to work in 2 units, especially since the Bishop of Guayanilla just got back from his temple trip this past weekend, and the ward mission leader moved to the States. So it's been kind of crazy!

Anyway, just know that President always wants to help us grow, and even though it was a big move and a big change, ultimately I think it will help. In the past week it really has helped. Pres. Alvarado is a great man, and I know that he holds the keys to this mission, and as we follow his counsel, we'll see growth and change.

But it's been a great week, because Elder Durfee and I have been learning and growing together. He's from Grantsville Utah. Oh, that reminds me, Pres. talked to us about that, and how he doesn't want us to just be another couple of missionaries from Utah. He wants us to stand out, because he knows we can. So anyway, we've been learning and the apartment is now spotless ha ha. Working in Yauco has been great, because there hadn't been missionaries there for like a year, and so in the past few months it has been exploding. Also, the members there want the branch to grow, and they help a TON. We have like 8 or 9 investigators. Here in Guayanilla, we are going to be seeing some growth also I think, and we're meeting with the Bishop Wednesday night to make some plans.

There's a man named Eric, and his daughter Erika, who live in Guanica, with whom we are trying to focus. He's a really cool guy, and we're trying to set a baptismal date with him.

Also, Efrain in Yauco is a pretty cool guy too. He's had the Book of Mormon for like 30 years, and knows it's true! All that is stopping him from being baptized is the fact that his wife is Catholic, and he doesn't want any problems with that.

There is a young man in Yauco named Yan Garcia who just came back from the States, and we haven't met him yet. But we've heard that before he left for the States he was really excited and at the point of baptism! Also, a young guy in Guayanilla is the same way, so we're hoping to work with the both of them. Anyway, there's so much going through my head at the moment with all our investigators that I can't keep them straight! But we now have a car, which is good, and next week I'll hopefully finally be getting my Puerto Rican driver's license. Oh and by the way, I was wrong about how no amount of cleaning could help the apartment. It looks much better now. :) It's still an ugly place, but having it clean has helped a lot. And it feels different. There's a more peaceful spirit in the apartment now, which is I think part of the goal.

Anyway, know that I am doing well. :) I love you all, and thank you all for everything. You are truly the best family ever, and I couldn't ask for any better! It's been a pretty good week, and really, really busy. There's not a moment where we're not doing something. It's good, and the work in Yauco is growing greatly, and will be soon also in Guayanilla. I love you all so so much, and I hope you're all doing well! I pray for you every night!

With much much love,

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 28: Possible Transfers

My dear, dear family.

It has been a pretty interesting week, especially Saturday, and this week promises to be even crazier. I'll get to that in a second though.

Mom - First off, it is so good to hear that you made it home safe and sound. I'm glad you had a good time with your family down in Argentina. I bet it was great to see them all again! And I hope everything went well for you all. I was praying for the whole family down in Argentina, so I hope it was all okay. But I'm glad you made it home safe and that everything seemed to work out alright. I love you Mom, so much! And don't worry Mom, there are some really great members here that take care of us really well. The whole bishopric is always great to us, and they each usually feed us whenever we pass by them. There are some other members that are really great too, so we're taken care of here. :) And that picture... I'll be honest, it brought a tear to my eye when I saw the last box. Thank you for sharing that. :) But thank you for everything Mom. I wouldn't be the person I am without all you do for me. I love you.
Dad - She's from Ponce? Really? That's awesome! That's also where Pres. Alvarado is from, so that's cool. Ponce is huge though, so it doesn't surprise me. A lot of people are from Ponce. That's pretty cool though, that I live just 30 minutes away from where she's from. About the shirts though, the ones I have are good for right now, they're just going to be pretty ugly by the time my year mark rolls around I think. So I don't know, maybe if you want to wait until October-ish to send them or something? And do you need the sizes or whatever? And as always, thank you for your mission experience. It's great to read about every week!
Marilee - What?? No email this week? Why you little... GOOFNUT! :) You're a great little sister and I hope you have a great summer! Make it the best ever! And let me know how all your camps and activities and everything go! Love you!

So now on to the craziness. Almost. I'll talk about Zondy a little bit first, and then I'll talk about our crazy experience on Saturday. So Zondy has his baptismal date set for this week, on the 9th! That is really awesome. He has not smoked thus far, since we last asked him to stop, and he seems to be pushing forward strong with the faith that he can do it. We'll be reviewing the baptismal interview questions with him this week and setting up an interview with the Zone Leaders for him, and hopefully after transfers on Wednesday, we'll still be here to be a part of his baptism and confirmation! He is so humble and so ready to be baptized, and the ward loves him. I hope he can just keep pushing forward and reach his goal this Saturday. What's even cooler (I can't remember if I already told you) is that this Saturday is also his birthday. What better day is there to be baptized and born again than on the day you were born for the first time? :)

Anyway, NOW the craziness. So on Saturday Elder Mangelson and I went out to work after our morning studies, and then the Zone Leaders came to our house to drop off a car report, and called us to go home so we could just talk about that and stuff. When we get there, they were talking about how Pres. and Hna. Alvarado's kids were in the States, which meant that they are now full-time missionaries free to roam the island and that they would be doing interviews and apartment checks randomly. About 20 minutes after the ZL's left, Elder Mangelson gets a call from Pres. Alvarado saying he's outside the apartment. We all just froze and our hearts just stopped, because President is one intimidating man. So we go and let him in, and he walks in and then starts interviewing us. He pulled me aside first, and asked if I was happy, to which I responded that I hadn't been this happy in a long time, and he smiled and just said "that's all I needed to know." And then we talked a little bit about the state of the apartment (it's one of the worst in the mission), and he said that we could be doing better on keeping it clean. That is true, we aren't the most diligent on cleaning it all the time, but at the same time, the apartment is not a very nice place to live to begin with. Anyway, he interviewed everyone, and then said that we need to spend our P-day cleaning the house and everything. Also, I will be sending home my pink ties and some other stuff in a package soon, because President doesn't like pink ties, and kind of got after me for having them haha... oh well.

A view of a Guayanilla street

So yeah, that was the morning. Later that day, as we were going out to a part of Guayanilla, we passed some old lady who asked us to help her with her son who was out cold on the ground. Elder Mangelson ended up calling 911 while I tried to calm down the lady and talk to her, and then the ambulance and some cops showed up, and it just turned out that the guy was drunk and that the lady was crazy, and that the cops knew her really well haha. Goodness sakes. Saturday was probably the craziest day of my mission as of yet. 

However, this could all change this next week. We got a call from the Zone Leaders this morning telling us that P-day is from 9 to 5 today, and that after emailing and "light shopping" (I'll explain that in a bit), we are to clean the apartments as if we were leaving them to the owners, because on Wednesday, the entire mission is supposed to be packed up and meeting in Guaynabo for a transfer meeting. The trainers will know either tonight or tomorrow and they will need to be up in Bayamón tomorrow night for the new missionaries, and then everyone meets on Wednesday for the transfer meeting. Talk about crazy. So I technically don't even know if I'm going to be staying in Guayanilla right now haha. I'll let you know everything next week though. Oh, and that's why we can't buy too much today, because it's very possible that we could be being transferred and whatnot this Wednesday.

Anyway, so that's what the craziness was and is. Besides that and Zondy, we also met a 13 year old kid named Esteban who has been coming to church all his life and now wants to be baptized! Basically, we just need his mom's permission, but he is so ready. He says he's received an answer, and that he wants to have the Priesthood so he can pass the sacrament and everything. Amazing!! Other than that, just a normal week full of contacting, visiting members and less actives, and trying to teach investigators. We'll see what happens as we move forward this week, and I'll make sure I let you know what happens this week!

Anyway, it's always great to hear from you all, and I love being able to read about what's going on back home and to write about the mission life here in Puerto Rico. I pray for you always, and I hope that you are all doing very well. :) I love you all so very much, and look forward to hearing from you again next week!

Con mucho 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

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