Week 52: Metro Area - One Year Mark

Hey all, what a year it has been! It's been a pretty good one, full of crazy experiences and lots of growing. :) It's been great. Wow. I can't even believe it's been just about a year. It flew by, and the last half goes even faster they say. Wow. Anyway, so that's pretty crazy! 

Mom - Well it sounds like you guys had a fun Thanksgiving haha. I hope it all worked out well and that you were able to enjoy yourselves. The TSO concert sounded pretty sweet though, and I'm glad you all had a great time there! I did miss you a bit on Thanksgiving, but it was still a pretty good day- I'll get to that in a second.

Dad - The TSO night sounded like a blast! We did have something on common on Thursday - and it involved riding a train haha. It's a pretty intense new area, and I'll get to explaining it in a bit! But it sounds like you all had a good time in Salt Lake! :)

Marilee - I'll email you in a bit. :)

 

Well, I am now working in Santurce. I've officially been transferred from Guayanilla and now work in Santurce. It's a huge change. I moved from the most tranquilo pueblo on the island to the area of the island where a ton of killings happen each year. I'm now in the middle of San Juan haha... it includes Viejo San Juan (all the touristy area), and all the northern part of San Juan (excluding the airport). It's CRAZY! It's so much fun though haha, and a TON more people. In our area there are like 1.5 million people or something. It's intense. And on top of that, everybody is Dominican, so that's pretty interesting. It's a pretty sweet area, and I'm still really confused directions wise there, but it all works out. Oh, and we don't have a car. We live in Caparra, right by the office, and we catch the train every day for a half hour with our bikes and then we go bike around in Santurce! It's pretty sweet, and a lot easier to bike than in Guayanilla, as it's all flat and hardly any hills. It's pretty sweet. :)

Santurce

 

Anyway, on Thanksgiving, we had two meal citas. The first one was with a member in Rio Piedras, and we ate Sancocho with him, which is a Puerto Rican stew. A bit later we ate with a member family in Santurce, and we had lechon, mashed potatoes, salad, and some rice. A different Thanksgiving dinner, but still really good. :) It was a good time, and I enjoyed it. Besides that, this week we had some really good lessons, and we taught a bunch of people. Santurce's got a lot of investigators, and a lot that are ready for baptism, so that will be sweet.

Then on Saturday night, some elders came and picked me and another missionary up, and we slept in the Riverside apartmentos for Sunday, because we were in the choir. On Sunday we went to Toa Baja, and then Arecibo, and we performed in those two sacrament meetings. It was really good. We then practiced a bit after, and then came back to the metro area. At 6:00, we met up at the office again and went to a funeral and sang there. (For all the performances I played the piano.) For the funeral, the Alvarado family brought a keyboard which was definitely NOT like a real piano, but I made it work haha. :) It was a nice service, and we left a nice performance there, singing "Nearer my God to Thee" and "Be Still my Soul", both in Spanish. And Pres. said a few words, and it was all really nice. The Spirit was definitely there. I'm a bit bummed I won't be able to visit my new ward until January, but it's really cool being a part of the Christmas Choir. We have another performance on Friday in Caguas, and then others throughout the month. We might even be going to the Islands!! Like Tortola, Antigua, St. Croix, etc. It'll be fun.

Anyway, that's about all I've got for the week. Lots of craziness, but we'll see where we go. Almost Christmas! Send me my Skype information ASAP. We still don't have anywhere to Skype yet, but I'll find somewhere before Christmas comes around. :) I love you all and wish you all the best! I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and that you're all doing great. :)

 

Con muchisimo amor,

 

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

 

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

Week 29: Baptism

My dear family,

First off, WOW! Elder Perry and two Seventies? That's incredible. It must have been a fantastic learning experience. It's interesting, I was actually just thinking about the priesthood activity of our ward and stake this past week, and wondered what could be done to make it better. I guess sending a member of the Twelve over there to rattle up the ward a bit is a great way! That's incredible! Wow. Just reading about the experience blows my mind haha.. wow.

Mom - So you got a facebook, huh? How do you like it? Once you get a hang of using it and stuff I may just let you take over my page until I get home. But we'll get there once you feel more comfortable with it and stuff. :) Anyway, that's so crazy. I can't get over the fact that you had Elder Perry speak in our ward. That's so crazy. And your new calling! Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate with that class haha... but I hope it is going well for you.
Dad - That sounds so intense. I can't even imagine what it was like to be instructed by Elder Perry about how to improve and rescue the priesthood holders. My goodness! I'm sure it was wonderful though to be able to listen to him and learn from his experience and everything. I hope the work progresses quickly back home and that the Stake is able to reactivate members and prospective elders.
Marilee - I will respond to you separately.

Well, getting to the week here, it was a little bit crazy, but I want to start off with the best news of all, I got my first baptism!! :) Zondy was baptized on June 9, which was also his birthday. :) It was a wonderful program, and he felt so great. What made it even better was that he was baptized by another recent convert, Ramon, and they have already started up a little friendship. On Sunday, Zondy was confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost. Also, he was interviewed by bishop, and was found worthy to receive the Aaronic Priesthood, and that was conferred upon him as well. He called us last night and said he felt different, in a good way. :) It was amazing! Absolutely amazing, and I know that he's going to do great things, if he just stays on the path and remains active. He wants to help so much, and has been spreading the gospel among his friends and everything, so that's a great start! This Sunday we hope to have him bless the Sacrament, which would be amazing. So that was definitely the highlight of the week. :)

At Zondy's baptism

Besides that, on Wednesday we had our transfer meeting up in Trujillo Alto. The whole mission met and there were a few changes. Elder Mangelson and I stayed here in Guayanilla, though, so it didn't really affect us. It was cool to see the other missionaries though, and I was able to talk to Elder Hammer again which was really cool. Also, Tuesday, President Alvarado wanted everyone to stay inside to catch up on reading for the 90 day challenge I told you about. I was caught up and a little ahead, but Elder Mangelson was a little behind, so we spent a good portion of the day inside reading. So I basically just got more ahead. Right now I'm in Jeremiah 32 or something like that, which is a good 5 days ahead of schedule haha. It's been really cool to read the Old Testament, especially Isaiah. There's a lot of things in there about the Temple and everything that was really interesting to read about.

But basically other than that, it was just a normal week. A lot of contacting, riding around and stuff on the bikes. OH, I almost forgot. On Friday I think it was, we decided to ride our bikes up to Consejo Alto, which is an area here in Guayanilla. Basically, it's all mountain, and there's a member family with some less-active mission age boys up there, and we wanted to visit them. So we basically almost died because of the heat and the uphill struggle haha.. but we made it, and it turns out they weren't even there. :( So after our hour, hour and a half quest up there, we rode all the way back down in like 5 minutes. It was a bit crazy.

Anyway, nothing too cool besides the baptism and confirmation and everything, which was AWESOME!! But yeah, just a normal week with normal lessons and everything.
Oh, by the way, I did get your package! Thank you so much for everything. :) Just one little note... you sent the angel Moroni tie clip, and I was actually hoping for a Captain Moroni tie clip.. so I'll send a picture of it in another email. I just like it better because in my opinion it looks better. BUT I thank you so much for the angel Moroni one, and I have been wearing it too. :) I do like it, but I just like the Captain Moroni one a bit more. So if you don't want to buy another one I'll completely understand and use this one, because it still is really really nice. But yeah, thank you again so much for the package! You are definitely the best family ever. :) I sent home a package with a few things in it, and I may be sending home another one shortly.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing really well, and you are always in my prayers. :) I love you all and thank you so much for all your support and everything. I'd be nothing without you guys! I look forward to hearing from you again soon!

Love you!

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