Week 30: Happy Pedaling

My dear family –

First off... WHAT?? Both my parents have a facebook account?? Wow. How are you liking it? ;) Haha...
Mom - Yeah, there's a lot of randomness on there, most definitely. Have you gotten the hang of it and stuff though? And thank you for the comics! Those are hilarious haha... I can picture both of them. But I'm glad the card got there. Did you get my package too? And yeah, I figured she'd be happy if I sent a picture. And the birthday sounds like it was good… lots of chocolate! Here (on Father’s day) we had another lunch thing after church for the fathers, so that was good.
Dad - I'm glad you got the card, and I hope you had a great Father's Day!! We stay pretty safe on our bikes. This week has been a bit crazy, because we finally found a way from Guayanilla to Peñuelas on our bikes, and the way down is down a windy hill road. It's not too windy, but we get going a little fast. :) We don't ride down that at night or anything, so don't be worried, it's a pretty safe ride. And thank you for cleaning out my emails! I was actually wondering about that, and how many I would have there. So thanks!
Marilee - I will respond to yours separately. :)

In Peñuelas

So… a bit of a crazy week with LOTS and LOTS of bike riding. Like I said earlier, we found a way to Peñuelas from Guayanilla on bike. It takes about 30/40 minutes of riding to get there, but we get there! We take water with us too because it's a good distance away. Anyway, so while we were there during this week, we passed by a lot of the members who we hadn't been able to visit, and also Ramón, the recent convert who baptized Zondy (news on Zondy to come shortly!). So it was good! The members up there like us a lot more it seems, because I think the members in Guayanilla get a little sick of us passing by all the time haha.. they're still nice, but it seems like the ones in Peñuelas are happier to see us, since they haven't seen us in a while, they're very receptive and very nice! Anyway, we're planning on working up there a lot more since we haven't been there for a while, and we've basically been through Guayanilla every day since I got transferred here and it's not all that big. Anyway, so that was the great discovery of the week!

We also picked up a new investigator this past week. She's from the Bronx and she's visiting with her aunt and uncle who live in Peñuelas, and so we started teaching her! We taught the lesson in Sunday School yesterday, and she said she liked it a lot and would like to learn more! So I don't know if we can baptize her here, but we can at least teach her so that when she goes back to New York in a couple of months she'll be ready for baptism. So that was pretty cool!

Also, news about Zondy. So I told you last week that he received the Priesthood and everything. Well, we walked into the chapel yesterday and guess who was wearing a suit?? ZONDY! We had also taught him about piercings, since he had the one in his eyebrow, and you know what he did? He stood up there on the spot, walked out onto his back porch, and THREW his piercing into the jungle! Amazing! So he was there on Sunday in his suit, without his piercing, and then he passed the Sacrament. :) It was so great to see, and he's only going to keep growing. Hopefully we can get him to the temple this November with the group that's going to Santo Domingo so he can do baptisms for the dead. But he's such a great guy and I think the ward will be able to help him out. :)

Anyway, besides that, it was basically a "get to know Peñuelas" week. It rained yesterday and we got kind of wet. Hurricane season is starting, and since I can't really watch the news or anything, maybe you could keep an eye out for any hurricanes coming our way? They say that since it's been so hot lately (it's been up in the 100's plus humidity), the hurricanes are going to be worse. We'll see. Anyway, other than that, we have interviews tomorrow up in Bayamón, but we're driving up there tonight. That'll be cool, but we lose a whole day of working, plus tonight, so we basically start our week on Wednesday. Oh well, it's all good. :) Puerto Rico is hot, but great, and I'm loving every minute!

Thank you my dear, dear family for all that you do for me and for all that you have ever done for me. Thank you for your support, and as always, I keep you in my heart and prayers! I love you all so so much!

Con muchísimo amor,

Elder Kimball Ray Gardner

Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

PS: this picture is all for Dad for Father's Day! In Peñuelas I saw this train statue and immediately thought of Dad. And since it was Father's Day weekend, I had to take a picture. :) Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you!!