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