Returned!

Both Elder Moroni Boren (May 19th) and Elder Braedon Roney (May 24th) returned home from their missions and we are all very happy to see them home safe!

From Braedon

hey everyone,

so this morning the first thing i heard when i woke up (besides the alarm) was my companion saying, "seven days" all creepy (and mexican-accented) like from that movie the ring or the call or whatever that lame movie was hahaha. always good to wake up with something to laugh to. anyways, things here have been nuts. i know i was supposed to work out more trip details last wednesday over email, but we had an emergency come up. ive had some crazy stuff happen on my mission, but this probably topped it all haha. however, im going to wait to tell you about it until next week hehehe. dont worry though, everyone is ok, it was just nuts (kinda like the bathroom at kathy's restaurant...haha that ones for kinny and adam). anyways, the madness keeps coming cause this coming week is packed with exchanges, departure activities, zone activities, and then the mission president's fireside down here in the el centro stake (its this legit fireside theyve been doing in san diego for the past year, but its never been done here so were yanking it down here so the stake-and i- can see it at least just once haha). plus, just last night i was told (not asked...told) that ill be giving a talk and doing a musical number on the guitar for the fireside. craziness, but itll be tight (like britns pants). this past week started off a little crazy with the incident ill tell you about later, but it wrapped up well. we met this interesting guy named pedro sanchez. his beliefs are unique, but hes open and willing to learn. weve taught him a few times already and he ended up coming to church this past sunday for all three hours, so its moving along well. the problem is that hes staying at a home where his sister is hard core catholic, his brother-in-law is an extreme (and i think drug-fried) pentecostal, and his brother that hangs out there often is a hard core christian (even though he says he doesnt believe all of it, yet he fights anyone over it hahah). then next door just happens to be a house full of what appears to be unemployed and bored thugs that boom rap from their ghetto-mobiles with subwoofers that probably cost more that the car itself hahah. so, not the ideal environment, but we talked to a recent convert last night whos willing to take him to church and be with us for lessons. kevin and christian saravia also came to church sunday for the three hours and ate it up. they loved sacrament meeting, even though the speakers were some gringos from the stake and one struggled with his spanish the whole time (but it was a bomb talk, and definitely what the ward needed to hear). im pretty positive theyll be getting baptized in just a few weeks. the mom is a less active member but wants to come back. sunday she wasnt feeling good (shes got a bad back but catered a school event anyways and came back dying), but she told us and actually seems pretty solid about coming next week. the dad, who supposedly isnt involved in religion, told us this last week that he really appreciates having us over to teach his family, so thats no longer a possible barrier, but now a possible investigator. good family. things with the reyes have been going really well (we helped them set a family vision/goals, and another time taught the son more about the restoration) but they didnt show up on sunday or even to english classes on monday. when we saw them saturday they were excited to come it seemed, and they never miss english classes, so we dont know what happened. were going to try to stop by today and see if all it ok. juan estrada is doing well. hes been reading in the book of mormon and weve been able to see him regularly, but he didnt feel comfortable going to church because he felt like hed be betraying his catholic mom (he doesnt go to church with her, but he feels like if he went to another church shed feel betrayed or something lame like that). however, he has been really open with us and its helped us see a lot about what he needs and i think weve got some good plans to get him confident and excited about this stuff. hes a great guy and ive got great hopes for him. we havent really be working with the landins recently, but we went by this week and talked to the husband jerry and hes having us over to do a FHE with everyone this week. that family would be a bomb mormon family that the ward could really use, so pray that we get lots of extra help with them. the benitez girls, sabrina and lydya, continue to do great. they brought two of their friends to institute last tuesday. woot! the friends...well, although they enjoyed it, they werent too excited about having the missionaries come over hahah. but they got shown the mormon.org stuff and were given a copy of the book of mormon, so who knows how thatll play out later on. im just excited because the benitez are just rockin it. theyve been doing a great job of missionary work, and even though it hasnt taken off with most people, it made all the difference with their sister sharon and im pretty sure that lidiana will become a member because of them too. uriel (less-active) is back again. he was coming pretty consistently like 6 or so months ago, but wasnt ready for the commandments stuff too much so dropped out again. but we started seeing him these past weeks and this week he showed up to church, stayed the three hours, and i saw him filling out a tithing slip between classes. props to him, hes a rad guy. so funny story. sunday, the ward had a baptism for steven barron (recent-convert/part-member family). during the service we had a musical number by the missionaries. however, elder mata didnt know the song too well and couldnt see the words for the life of him (and didnt have his glasses on him). so of course their is a 'guys only' part in the song, and elder mata was just humming randomly, so during the men's part i had to do a mini solo while elder mata hummed randomly hahah. it was super hard not to laugh but we made it through haha. anyways, questions i need to answer. church in calexico starts at 10 AM. calexico is 2 hours from san diego. there might be like one or two hotels in calexico that could accomodate all of us, but im not sure. the marriot in el centro would be a safer bet and its only like 10 minutes from calexico. de anza hotel isnt really a hotel anymore. its fixed up from the earthquake, but ive been told that they just use it to rent now, like an apartment complex. i think thats all the questions. plans sound good. ill be sending stuff home this week in a few boxes. ashton, happy birthday! your gift from me will be missionary stuff too, so dont get too excited haha. but a mission is definitely the best gift ever, right? well, i know i should probably say something epic here because its my last email...but alas, i dont think i will hahah. just know that i love you all and if you want to hear something specific, ask me once im home hahah. SD mission rules, definitely changes my life, but i know if i tried to say something uber cool that it would utterly fail. ill tell you all about it next week hahah. love

elder roney

From Braedon

hey everyone,

this past week flew by. im having trouble even remembering what happened haha. i remember we ended up doing a ton of service for members haha. but its ok, it resulted in 2 new investigators and a few other potentials. we helped out this member family that is known by everyone in the valley, the van de graf family. theyve been here for 53 years and played a big part in the county and all. theyve helped a ton of people here too. anyways, we went over to help move their stuff (all 53 years worth of it...ive never seen anything like it. 10 ladders, 52 hatchets, 20 shovels, enough indian pottery to make their own museum...i was amazed by everything they had haha) into a bunch of trailers and trucks cause theyre moving to mesa arizona. well, one of the ideas to doing simple member work that we give out in the mission is to invite non members to help with service. so they invited their neighbors and some other friends they had, and it worked out perfectly. two have already talked with missionaries and enjoyed it but lost contact and now live in mexicali, but they said yes to missionaries and so we sent the referral down there. two more live here in calexico and we went and saw them on sunday night. theyre rad. a 21 and a 24 year old. the 21 year old jorge is just here for vacation these two weeks and is a pro soccer player (goalie) for some club team in tijuana...the name was ridiculous...something like oxoacasquincle hahah. but its for real and not made up like we thought, he showed us legit pictures and such from mexican news and such haha. the 24 year old jose luis got his BA in psychiatry from SDSU but cant find work so is helping out as a tutor in an elementary for 3 hrs a day. regardless of the lack of good work accounting for his degree, hes a pretty happy and open guy. they have lots of good questions and understand everything really well. plus theyre the age for YSA, which means that if we can get them to one of those activities then its set in stone. the YSA program rocks, theyll take them in super quick. its nice to have two more young guys in our teaching pool too, the others we started teaching last week are a bit more elderly and although theyre great, they have some weird ability to suck the energy out of you haha. great people though. plus, through one of them, we found another great guy that well be teaching later today named juan estrada. hes the son of one of the elders moms we met haha. turns out juan went to school with two mormon guys and they ended up being his best friends through college. they taught him a bunch about the gospel, took him to church with them a few times, and juan even ended up going to salt lake and seeing the temple and all that. he loved it. so he looks pretty prepared, we see how things get rolling after tonight. were going to see the saravia family tonight too. we gave them a copy of the book of mormon and the two non member kids were excited about it. christian said he wants to try to read it all in the next two weeks (hes a read-a-holic. im sure that brolin would smoke him though ;) ). esperanza and juan started coming to english class and both of them have been at church the past two weeks. woot. shes finally letting us teach her too instead of just talking our heads off hahah. man that lady can talk. but yeah, shes calming down and shes progressing again. jesus reyes and his daughter silvia came to church on sunday too. their family is doing well. little silvia loves it when we come over to teach. shes a sharp little 10 year old. this week were planning on inviting the kids to be baptized on the 22nd of may. that should give us time to find the dads records (if they exist) and get him the priesthood so he can baptize them. theyre such a sweet family. super humble and caring. besides that, nothing major to report about our people. yesterday we had a mid-transfer transfer because the change in mission boundaries took effect starting today. 4 of the elders from the valley ended up getting moved up there and we only got 2 new ones back out here, so now were down to 5 companionships/10 missionaries in the valley. there was a lot of downsizing throughout each zone to be able to fill the new 2 zones, but its good because itll give each companionship more area to work with. the whole change was huge and crazy. 180/186 missionaries in our mission were there with all their cars and phones and everything because everything was getting flipped around. it was madness, even with the well planned move by president. anyways, our day yesterday was filled with dropping off the elders, the transfer meeting, zl council, stake report, and bringing out the new elders. oh, and on the way back we saw the aftermath of a pretty bad wreck in the mountain pass that goes down into the valley. a truck had gone flying off the free way and into a big ravine full of big boulders. the car was twisted and bent in half as if it were putty. super intense. the ambulence had already taken off but the cops were still there trying to figure out how they were going to get the truck out. nuts. drive safe. hey, this sea base thing sounds pretty legit. save the info dad, that might be a good place to go some summer haha. as for mothers day phone call, ill probably do it around 1:30 our time, so like 2:30 for you all. if that doesnt work, i can call back later on too. ill text dad the night before to confirm. also, as for the visit back here, the quiroz family offered us a place to stay for a few days if we want. we can discuss the options/details on sunday i guess. as for where to stay in san diego...well, i have no idea haha. there is a marriott hotel thats pretty central to everything. its by qualcomm stadium, 10-15 minutes from the beach, 20 minutes from sea world, and 10-15 minutes from my old areas in calexico. idk though, well discuss that on sunday too hahah. hey, i heard that abbie hulme leaves next week? tell her congrats and that im super excited for her, shell do great, im sure of it. also, i got the package you sent on last friday. thanks for the bling haha. no, i loved the family picture and i appreciate the whitening strips hahah. applebees will be great, but itll also ruin any hopes of fitting well into the clothes i left at home haha. thanks though, i loved it. youre all the best! well, keep praying for us. weve got good potential to work with and this past week we had a bunch of success with members getting fired up and a few rad referrals. im determined to leave this place rocking for whomever takes my place here. pray for it to happen, itll really help give momentum to the ward through the summer. love you all. talk to you sunday!

elder roney

From Moroni

Dear Family

How are things going? I am doing well Elder Baker and Elder Miranda had a baptism last weekend and they are doing well they have another baptism planned for this Saturday Elder Martins and I are still looking for some new investigators we have a few investigators who should be baptized in the future. Sunday was a little tough because it was a holiday and we did not have a lot of investigators who made it to church but hopefully this week will be better. I hope that everyone has a good week and until Sunday

Love Elder Boren