June 4, 2012

Dear Family,

I am going to have lunch with the Davis family on Wednesday at "El Charro", a really famous restaurant I haven't tried yet.  Brother Davis was pretty excited when I called because he had no idea his wife had dropped off a note the day before.  I'm looking forward to it.  The house where I am now is owned by an awesome family, and they have this awesome Chinese Shar-Pei (a type of dog) which is making me very eager to see Frankie again.

I am glad you enjoyed your century ride in Tahoe.  I've really gotten into bikes while on my mission.  I've acquired a bunch of bike-specific tools, and always help the other missionaries out with tune ups and stuff.  I look forward to mountain biking when I get back to Utah.  Do you ever use your Specialized mountain bike with the Fox suspension?  Because I would love to have it if it never gets used anymore.  I'm thinking of leaving my bike with a member here and then driving down from Utah to get it when I visit some of the converts and stuff.  That's may be the least expensive way to get it home.  I would just like to have it for riding around campus since it's not a mountain bike.

Congratulations to the Mets for their record breaker.  I can't wait to be able to watch sports again.  Who won the first two games of the Stanley cup??  New Jersey or LA?  I think LA is going to win because their goalie is super beastly from what I hear, and they completely wiped out the Blues and Coyotes.

I'm still District Leader in my new Zone.  My companion's name is Elder Carrillo from Kentucky (but his parents are from Guatemala and El Salvador).  It has been a real blessing working with him because he has a great attitude and a real desire to do the work and get things going in our area.  It's been awhile since I have had a companion who really takes initiative to be active in teaching and contacting situations (Elder Eskeets had that motivation but was hindered a bit due to how new he was in the mission and learning the language).  I'm a little bummed I'll only have Elder Carrillo for at most, this transfer and the three weeks of the next one that I'll be here.  We just had a baptism this past Saturday of Brian Rangel which was really good.  His whole family was there and you could tell his Mom was especially touched by the service.  He is the pioneer of his family in the church so we're looking forward to working with them.  We did find out, after talking to our Ward Mission Leader, that she desires to be baptized one day, so hopefully we can capitalize on that pretty soon here.

I'm sure the weeks are going to begin flying by even faster now that I am coming to the end of the mission.  It feels so weird just looking at pictures from my last area and thinking that it passed by as if it were a dream.  I am not going to be one of those missionaries who just stops working though, that's for sure.  I would love to send you pictures but somehow in my last area I lost my card reader or left it somewhere, so I'm going to need to buy another one at the store to send pictures.  Love you lots and hope all is well in NC.  Can't wait to see you.

Love,

Elder Kinney

PS - Sister Bray pulled over some Elders in my district and asked them if they knew me and of course they said yes.  I don't know if she is still in AZ but you can tell her the the next time you talk to her that the info got to me.