October 14th, 2024 - 60th Email - I got banished

This week was insane

Honestly I have no idea where to even start with this week

I guess first things first I got transfered to salton sea which is actually back in the palm desert zone, ive been here since thursday

Ive been on exchanges in this area which is crazy cuz i served in indio and actually im in indio rn writing this email

Its just wild visiting places ive already been to before

Also another thing thats crazy is we have the same amount of sisters as elders in my zone now theres 10 elders and 10 sisters (which is nuts) which means fewer exchanges

My companion is elder mejia and hes from el salvador but lived in texas for like 10 years

Plus they used to have english missionaries too but they just got rid of them which is kinda depressing lowkey idk why they did that but now its just us two in a house thats 40 minutes away from any other missionaries so we kinda just chillin on our own and we cover the english branch too so im like a half english missionary or something but we have to switch off what unit we attend each week cuz the spanish branch meets in a senior center bingo hall in salton city and english has a teeny tiny building way out in borrego springs

We went to borrego springs yesterday and it is weird theres like absolutely nothing there and then all of a sudden theres a downtown area and trailer parks and normal houses and gated communities its just a weird place

Salton city is weird too theres absolutely nothing there 

We're lucky we have a family dollar and dollar general next to a gas station with a taco bell and jack in the box but theres not even a mcdonalds or a walmart within a 40 minute radius

We do tons of driving tho probably like an hour on average is just driving

What was really crazy tho was the drive from san bernardino down here, it was an hour 40 minutes

I really like long drives tho (theyre kinda nice breaks) so its chillin

It was really sad to leave san bernardino i really loved my time there and the ward was really great, the zone was awesome, and the friends i made there were really really good so ill be back for sure (although its pretty dangerous there lol)

Pretty much the whole mission was totally upended tho so many areas were opened or whitewashed because 23 new missionaries came in last transfer

Also funny story so we were going to set up english class and we found out we lost the keys to the church (L) and so we ran around trying to find an open door and elder pizarro went to open a door and it opened and then he ran inside and it closed before i got there and i tried opening it and it was locked so i had to run around the building again to where elder pizarro was going to let everybody in and he was confused like "why didnt you go in back there" and i was like "it was locked" and he was like "wait wut" it was pretty funny

Monday evening we did a cool noche de hogar with the ward, so i did get to see most everyone before i left

Wednesday was when we found out i was leaving but honestly we could tell i was out because i had been there for a while so i just packed that morning and we said bye to everyone it was sad

Uhhhh what else

Oh yeah so saturday was thanks day again

We tracted from 9 am to 9 pm but it ended up not being like that

We tracted all morning, basically because the houses were all so spread apart in the places we went we would knock 1 or 2 houses then hop in the truck and start driving again it was lowkey funny

Then after lunch we went tracting with a member up in salton sea shores (a little bit north of where we live, the houses are more compact there) and we just knocked doors with her but her dogs followed her and she has like 10 dogs and so they kinda got in the way of knocking every door and they tried to get in fights with literally every other dog they saw and people thought we were giving away the dogs and we were just like "nah they just followin us lol" and honestly most people just didnt answer the door

Also it was cool cuz i actually had met her parents before, when i served in indio i was at her dad's baptism

Plus on saturday an hermano from the indio ward that i served with was called as a high councilor in the salton sea branch so i saw him and it was chill

Also the branch president and his wife know my parents really well because the branch president served his mission in puerto rico and served in my moms ward when she was 12 and his wife grew up in the same town as her so thats pretty wild

Anyway saturday evening was goofy so after dinner a member of the english ward told us hed go tracting with us down in ocotillo wells

Which was a 40 minute drive away (theres a theme here with stuff being 40 minutes away)

So we drive down and we get there and hes like yeah theres an rv park over here

So we pull up and knock one door and the guy said "ayo so basically this is a weekend place where people pull up just for a couple days"

So we're like "dang ok" and then look around a bit more and theres like no permanent residence areas at all so we totally wasted our time but its okay we just drove back and then we have to set up the bingo hall for church every week which honestly is kinda fun

Sunday like 10 people were at church (it's a teeny branch but its chill) and we taught the youth (2 people) and we didnt really teach a whole lot we basically just talked the whole time

Also there was a baptism the week before and one of the kids that got baptized accidentally had his records put into the wrong branch so we had to like cancel the baptism form and completely redo it it was pretty goofy

Then we drove to borrego springs yesterday and that was pretty much our entire evening, the drive is super pretty, and its funny because the road changes completely once you cross the county line between imperial and san diego (now i can say ive been to san diego county and every county in the mission)

But yeah im super excited to be in this area and stuff so its cool

We also have a cool keyboard in our houses thats like some kinda organ but its built like a keyboard which is sick

And honestly more than anything

Im just happy we have our own washer/dryer again

I was tired of going to another apartment to do our laundry so this is great

Also we be eating super healthy

(Not me eating in n out twice, taco bell, and chipotle in like three days)

Ok bye im outta here

Pictures!

-in front of our house

-our house

-me and elder mejia (bro is tall)

-cool view

-chickens