From Braedon

first of all....LAURA!!!!! I cant express how stoked i am about the news!!!! im going to be suffering all week long, wanting to know where the next Sister Dyer will be serving. congrats, im so happy about that :)

next, guess who will be staying in calexico again this transfer? yup, me hahah. bishop marrujo told me last night that he may as well go ahead and request my membership records into the ward hahah. so ill be here til mid-april at the least. hahahah i still cant believe it...but im excited about it. weve got a lot of good stuff happening and the zone has been doing a great job too. at the rate weve been going in 2011, were aimed to beat the stake goal by 14. the missionaries here have been doing a great job, big time props to them. its been super hard for them to find new investigators and all that stuff, but regardless theyre squeezing all they can out of what theyve got and its going well.

so, still nothing with griselda. boo. if we ever do get things back on board with her, ill let ya know...

however, things with sabrina and lidia are rocking. they still come to institute, church, and the YSA family nights, plus meet with us separately. they devour whatever we leave them with, and even go on to mormon.orgto check out more. they committed themselves to live the word of wisdom and are working hard with that. all is going super well. we invited them to be baptized in 2 weeks but said they hadnt felt it yet but will keep thinking about it. well, we watched the joseph smith video (the hour-long one) with them and im pretty sure they felt it, both said they were trying not to cry haha. they invited us over to eat with the entire family today, so were going to have the chance to get the whole family rolling. they dad even wants to meet with us on sundays (its his only day off) and so well be starting to do that. things are just going well. were working hard to make sure there is another benitez family in the ward by the end of this transfer haha. good stuff, keep them in your prayers please.

the landin family. also rockin it. we talked with the whole family on saturday. so amazing. even the kids amaze me with how legit and respectful and such they are. we had a kneeling prayer with them before we left and it was amazing to see the whole family kneeling in prayer together. such great people. yet again, that family definitely needs to be a part of the ward asap. the kids have been asking to go to the church, and the dad is down with it, norma is the only one that cant get the courage to come to church. but i think that with the husband and kids wanting to go, shell give in and go soon. by the way, adam judd and jerry would get along pretty well i think. he drives the same truck adam had, listens to some legit old school rap, funk, and rock, and even though he was born in mexico he knows and uses some uber american slang haha. super great guy. and family. woot.

the laborin familiy is also doing well. we met with the husband, wife, and one of the sons and it went super well. they even said that they want to invite their daughter and son-in-law to come over to their house for the next lesson. we met them at the perfect time. he just finished his jobs as a welder so will have free time for the next few months and the wife and daughter just got saturdays and sundays off. its getting set up perfectly. we should be seeing them later on today and will be talking about the family, because theyre huge about that. man, i love teaching families. its been too long since weve had a few good ones, im glad weve got a few now. good stuff.

we started teaching this older lady named hermana sandoval and then another guy named ruben, but weve only taught them once each so were still not sure how itll play out with them. however, last night we met celia geraldo and she is super cool. kinda sad and worried about her family, but shes a great lady and has lots of respect for the church. shes even been a few times in the past with one of her old friends. well see her later this week and see if we can start helpin her out some more.

most of this week will be sucked away into things other than working in our area. tomorrow we take missionaries in to san diego for transfers, then have ZL council, then come back to teach english classes (the classes should be pretty good, we bombarded the swap meets and downtown with fliers and found lots of people that wanted to come). then thursday and friday its back to san diego for leadership training. then once were back weve got to do this stake report. but, we should have some good time on saturday and sunday to get stuff done. luckily weve got a phone (and not to mention texting) to help us keep in contact with everyone during the time well be gone.

that is about it folks. i cant believe the judds will be gone to ghana. wow. i definitely wont be paying them a visit during their service haha. but youll be in my prayers brother (or should i say president) and sister judd. i think ill be able to see them before they take off. at least i hope so. im glad to hear that britt is doing so well with her jewelry. you should send me some pictures of it. and ashton, its exciting that youre finishing up your mission papers. avery, you didnt try out for tennis? oh well, i still love you. and stop growing. brolin, keep rocking on. ill probably use your amazing reading skills to help me out with reports in college. so thanks in advance. dad...i cant believe you were in san diego. man, who hasnt been to san diego while ive been out here in the desert? mom, props to you for doing such a good job with the family and relief society. after working with ward leaders so closely, i realize how nuts it is. youre doing great :) well, im out of time. keep it real. love you all.

elder roney