From Braedon

hey everyone,

big news first. sabrina talked to her dad and hes down with her getting baptized! woot! she called us sunday evening to tell us. i was freaking out haha. its going to be perfect because this coming weekend her two sisters from san diego will be down in the valley, her brother from mexicali will be up on this side of the border, and well can have the baptismal service between conference sessions up in el centro (where her mom lives). so there should be tons of people to see and support her and lidia with the baptism, both the members thatll be at conference, and the whole family (like 12 of them haha) should be there too! woot! that family rocks. i had to get the big news out first, but ill continue on with why that family rocks haha. this past friday we did a family night with the rosales (members) and invited sabrina and lidia. well, her sister sharon (one of her sisters that lives in san diego) came down that same night and so sabrina and lidia brought sharon along too. then the following day sabrina took sharon to a hike with the YSA. then on sunday sabrina and lidia brought sharon to church too. she loved it. sharon will be back down this weekend and already told us shell see us at conference. woot. lidiana, another sister from san diego that we met a few weeks ago, is working with elder little and burnell in my old area in bonita and is getting baptized in 3 weeks too. shell be down this weekend too. uber. and to top it off, the dad said we could do a family night with his whole family this weekend as well. the benitez family is legit. so yeah, thats been making elder mata and me all sorts of stoked hahah.

more good news. the cruz family (minus the dad and son...son was sick, dad was working) came to church on sunday! and they enjoyed it a lot, even though they didnt understand everything (the gospel principles class was about the scriptures, and the teacher was in a hurry to finish on time so rushed through doctrine and covenants and the pearl of great price a little, leaving the cruz family bewildered hahah...dont worry, we clarified it all yesterday). they said there was only one thing they wish was different....that the whole family wouldve been there! hahah so theyre determined to make sure that everyone in the family makes it for conference this weeked. woot! weve got it set up to have lots of contact with them too. church on sunday, institute on tuesdays, activities on wednesday, and thursday were doing a movie ("the restoration") night at the church with their family, and then sunday at general conference. they probably wont make it for the saturday stuff (they all work at the swap meet on saturday), but if they can all go on sunday i wont be too upset haha.

celia geraldo went to church too. she too felt a little thrown off by the doctrine and covanants and pearl of great price stuff, but i dont think itll destroy her interest or scare her away. shes in san diego for a few days seeing a friend in the hospital, but shell be back in time for general conference too. shes been asking questions about baptism, so its on her mind. well probably re-invite her after conference and after she hopefully watchs the baptism on sunday. shes living with a super missionary member, shes bound to get it and get more into it.

victor manzanares finally started his stop smoking/drinking alcohol/coffee program! but when he started he did it with determination. hermano felix went with us to get him excited about it and to help explain the program (he overcame some addictions like 6 years ago with the missionaries). it was perfect. hes doing well so far, despite the fact that everyone else in his house smokes/drinks hahah. but weve the whole 8 days of the program planned out with things for him to do/places to go so that hes out of the bad atmosphere (once again, most of it is church stuff haha. you gotta get as much of that good stuff in with english/stop smoking programs, its gold). well be seeing him each day and calling him a bunch too. once hes got this kicked, i think he'll be ready to move along. when we taught him before he always said that would be his barrier before baptism because it was a part of repentance. very true. and its also true that after this week that barrier will be gone hahah. so once this monday hits, if all continues to go well, well have a mini celebration with him and start helping him take the next steps.

ivan and miguel laborin went to the activities on wednesday and loved it. miguel is having some issues with his wife that he just recently married, so hes down with talking with us so that he can try to fix that whole situation. now that weve got miguel, weve got the whole familys trust. theyre reading and praying now, and now that theyre coming to activities on wednesday well be able to see them 3 times a week instead of the slow paced 2 times we had before. they went to mexicali this weekend, but theyre excited to go back to the activities and said they wanted to come the following weekend to church. lets hope that it happens eh.

we started teaching the reyes family (they came to our english class last week). theyre pretty legit. its the grandparents, their son (jesus) and daughter (maria), and then two grandkids (both are jesus's kids). the grandparents are kinda old but still got their mind pretty sharp. and even though the grandma says shes never talked with mormons before, she sure knows a whole ton about us (and its true stuff, none of that anti mormon false baloney). this weekend they went to san felipe or something like that, but they said theyd love to join us for church this coming weekend. the kids went to english class last night and theyve both got their prayers down already and feel super comfy with it (we pray before and after each english class. we basically slip in as much church stuff as we can with english classes, its the bomb hahah). the only problem is that the mom of the two kids lives in mexicali and cant cross, so sometimes they spend weekends down there with her and sometimes up here with the grandparents. thats alright though, im sure the missionaries in mexicali wont mind stopping by their house down there.

our english classes, by the way, are rocking. last night we had yet another new couple come. they live in mexicali, but i got their information so that the missionaries down there can make contact with them. then just this morning we had somebody from the mexican embassy here in calexico call us. theyre doing a fair thing and want us to put up a booth to 'recruit' people for english classes. we were more than happy to say yes. so good stuff there. thank you trevon for giving me the drive/inspiration to start up the classes again.

well, thats about it. but hey, congrats to laura on going to the temple on friday. i really wish i couldve been there, but im glad that you were able to go :) and hey, did ashton get his mission papers in yet? im dying to know about that. brolin, let me know what happens with your top 10 essay. thats super exciting. if you get the $5000, remember that im your favorite brother eh ;) mom, about my birthday, i dont really need anything. ive got lots of ties. and theyre not too shabby. some are actually quite legit. but yeah, im sure that ive got more than enough nice ones for when i go home. thanks though. my birthday gift can be making sure that the scooter is up and running for when i get home hahah. oh, and also it can be healthy snacks, if you decide to send any haha. besides that, nothing. i mean itll just be more stuff that ill have to try to make fit in my luggage and such in a month. a family picture and a card will be perfect.

love you all tons. i will talk to yall again next week.

elder roney