January 27th, 2025 - 75th Email - So apparently it snowed in florida

Hey

So uh florida was really cold this week i hear i hope everyone back home was enjoying their winter honestly if i was there rn id be begging my parents to take me up to the panhandle to see the snow i guess its probably melted at the time of the sending of this email but it was still crazy to hear about

As for my week here in california (regrettably it does not snow in my current location) it has been pretty chilly at night (even dipping into the 30s some evenings) and the weather has been quite pleasant

Overall really good week nothing too insane happened we just had a lot of lessons and it was just really good clean fun we were pretty busy overall

Erm

We went and visited a member who wasnt feeling good to see if she wanted a blessing and then apparently she was showering or somethin cuz her son (who is not a member) came out and started talking to us and bro was babbling about something i dont really remembuh but we talked for like a looooong time long enough for his mom to get out of the shower and we ended up giving the lady a blessing and it was pretty dope but then she started talking for forever so that was pretty funny

Yeah we just met a lot of dope people on wednesday and had some cool conversations idrk what else happened lowkey

Oh wait yeah we had a surprise trip to borrego because of a misunderstanding

We thought we would have a lesson with a friend at the bingo center at 7 pm but turns out his member sister in borrego thought we were driving out there and we didnt have time to go at 7 pm so we went at 3 pm and talked about the plan of salvation

Thursday a friend gave us lunch that was super nice we be having some family drama between them and members in the ward (theyre related) so pray that theyll be able to put all this stuff behind them and just forgive each other because after hearing both sides out it seems like theres not much we can do and they just gotta resolve it between each other

Anyway the food was realllllly good and they were super nice can never go wrong with some good mexican food unfortunately but it made us miss district lunch at in n out but at least it was free

Talked to our recent convert about the temple (he went for the first time last week) and he loved it and was really excited to hear he could prepare to receive his endowment in a year and i think it'll also help his family members want to get their own too (since theyve been members a while)

So saturday we were supposed to go back to borrego to talk to the member and her brother again and we still went to borrego but her brother went to mexicali for work and we were really sad bucuz we wanted to finish the plan of salvation with him and also there was gonna be a baptism on sunday (the english elders baptized a guy it was a great baptism) and we wanted him to see it but its ok

Coolest part of the week was it rained yesterday and that was awesome

Church was good, but nobody came rip its ok tho because we took the sacrament to a recent convert cuz she was sick and some of her family arent members so they were able to take it and feel the Spirit so that was great i also took a nice nap after getting home from the baptism in borrego (we went to borrego three times this week...)

Also cool branch goal is to start up a weekly family home evening on mondays because we need to get the members involved more so hopefully that works

Aight thats basically it lol

Pictures!

-idk why i have a picture of me washing dishes

-cool pic

Wow those were some random pictures ill get a better haul next time

First talk on the mission - January 19th, 2025

 Buenos días Hermanos y Hermanas,

Estoy seguro de que ya me conocen, pero soy el Elder Hanson y soy de Orlando Florida. Tengo 20 años y 17 meses en la misión y he servido aquí en Salton Sea desde el Octubre pasado. De alguna manera me las he arreglado para no dar un discurso en la reunión sacramental hasta ahora. Supongo que estoy bastante escondido allí en el piano por lo que el Presidente nunca me vió. Pero ya no pude escapar más y finalmente me acorraló y amablemente me pidió que diera discurso. A todo el mundo le pasa tarde o temprano.

El Espíritu Santo es muy importante. Hablamos del Espíritu Santo mucho y hablamos de sentir el Espíritu Santo cuando tenemos un momento muy impactante en nuestras vidas pero a veces siento que lo tratamos como una cosa para sentir y no lo reconocemos como un ser real, un amigo con quien estar. No sólo sentir algo, sino sentir la presencia de alguien, la presencia de Dios.

El Espíritu Santo es uno de los tres miembros de la Trinidad, con Dios el Padre y Jesucristo. Su trabajo es ser el mensajero de Dios. En Doctrina y Convenios 130:22 dice que

“el Espíritu Santo no tiene un cuerpo de carne y huesos, sino es un personaje de Espíritu. De no ser así, el Espíritu Santo no podría morar en nosotros.”

Siempre que hay algo que necesitamos saber de Dios, lo recibimos por medio del Espíritu Santo. Él nos es enviado para mejorar nuestra comprensión, para advertirnos, para guiarnos. Aunque el mensaje viene por el Espíritu Santo, viene de Dios. Una carta que recibes no viene del cartero. Estás escuchando la palabra de Dios a ti. La revelación personal.

Y porque Dios no te puede mentir, como dice Enós en su único capítulo 1:6 en el Libro de Mormón, el Espíritu Santo es, por tanto, nuestra fuente de toda verdad. Sólo por “el poder del Espíritu Santo podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas.” (Moroni 10:5)

Aún nosotros misioneros no podemos convencer a nadie de nada. Solo estamos transmitiendo el mensaje… del mensaje… de Dios. Solo el Espíritu Santo puede tocar al corazón de alguien y llevar a cabo el conocimiento, la creencia, o una conversión verdadera a Jesucristo.

Ni ningún profeta enseña por sí mismo. Dice en el Nuevo Testamento en 2 Pedro 1:21

“porque la profecía nunca fue dada por voluntad humana, sino que los santos hombres de Dios hablaron siendo inspirados por el Espíritu Santo.”

Así era como Dios trabajaba en los tiempos de la Biblia y así es como Dios trabaja ahora.

Por eso es muy importante el recibir el Don del Espíritu Santo y ser confirmado miembro de la Iglesia de Jesucristo con su autoridad. Sin ese Don podemos sentir el Espíritu Santo en no más las ocasiones muy especiales cuando aprendemos de Dios y estamos buscando verdades del Evangelio. Pero con el Don del Espíritu Santo lo tenemos a Él– otra vez, ni una cosa ni objeto sino una persona real que trabaja directamente con Dios– con nosotros para siempre. No importa lo que estemos haciendo. Y cuando no estamos haciendo lo que debemos, el nunca se da por vencido con nosotros. Jesucristo nunca se da por vencido con nosotros.

En un mundo tan difícil de navegar, y cada día es peor, el Presidente Nelson nos dijo este consuelo en la conferencia General de Octubre de 2022.

“Algunos nos quieren hacer creer que la verdad es relativa, que cada persona debe determinar por sí misma lo que es verdadero. Tal creencia no es más que una expresión de deseo de quienes, además, piensan equivocadamente que no serán responsables ante Dios.”

La verdad no está para que la inventemos nosotros: Dios ya la ha puesto ante nosotros y quiere que la descubramos por nosotros mismos con la ayuda del Espíritu Santo. No vamos a poder sobrevivir espiritualmente sin su ayuda. Tienes que confiar en el Espíritu Santo– o sea, confiar en Dios– cuando tomas decisiones importantes. Por nuestra cuenta, no siempre podemos saber qué es lo mejor para nosotros; solo podemos adivinar. Pero con el Espíritu Santo y el don del Espíritu Santo, podemos estar seguros y conocer la verdad de todas las cosas, no solo de algunas cosas, evitar las trampas del adversario en los últimos días y, en última instancia, acercarnos más a Dios como familias e individuos.

Yo lo sé, porque he estudiado las escrituras y he visto con mis propios ojos lo que pasa con la gente que confía a Dios y con la gente que no confía en Él. Dios nunca te dejará sin consuelo si siempre escuchas a Su mensajero.

Tener el Don del Espíritu Santo en mi vida ha sido una bendición para mi. Siento que a veces soy una persona olvidadiza y, especialmente ahora en la misión, he sentido Su presencia con recordatorios sencillos que tengo que hacer algo, visitar a alguien, llamar a alguien, hacer una tarea, compartir algo con alguien, casi como si una bombilla se prendiera en mi cabeza. A veces ya estoy acostado en cama a punto de dormirme y siento del Espíritu que tengo que hacer algo porque lo voy a olvidar en la mañana cuando me levante y sé que tengo que seguir la indicación. Casi me olvidé de escribir este discurso (no es cierto)

Recuerdo cuando recibí mi llamamiento misional y estaba bien emocionado de recibirlo. Quería servir en un lugar fuera de los Estados Unidos. Mis dos mejores elecciones eran Suecia y Australia. Suecia porque tengo antepasados de allí y Australia sólo porque sería bien cool. Está tan lejos pero todavía hablan inglés! Pero era “eh” de la idea de servir en el mismo país. Pero cuando leí mi llamamiento y dijo que yo iba a servir en la misión de San Bernardino California, sentí el Espíritu Santo diciéndome que aquí es donde debo estar– sin decirme ni una palabra. Pero yo sé que fue el Espíritu. Y he visto tantos milagros y ahora sé que aquí es mi segundo hogar y tengo que ayudar a todos que quieran escuchar que Dios les quiere– tal como yo les quiero.

Sé que el Espíritu Santo existe. No les puedo decir como llegué a este punto en mi misión sin su ayuda cada día. No es fácil. La vida no es fácil. Y es peligroso espiritualmente en este mundo andar solos al menos que queremos crecer para aprender la verdad de todas las cosas.

Sé que Jesucristo y Dios les aman a todo del mundo. Todos ustedes. Por eso nos ha dado una manera segura sin ni poca posibilidad de fallar de saber de ese amor a través del Espíritu Santo. Sé que Él les ayudará superar los tiempos difíciles y regocijarse con ustedes en los tiempos felices.

En el nombre de Jesucristo,

Amen.

January 20th, 2025 - 74th Email - First talk on the mission

 Yo

This week was wild

So we start off on monday after pday we just went all the way up to ranchita to have food with a member

And ranchita is an hour drive away

So that basically took up our entire evening but it was a chill drive and we did visit someone beforehand

Tuesday we ended up doing a pretty last minute exchange with my district leader elder allen (who was my companion back in indio when i was on bike back in february of last year, I follow up trained him) and it was fun

We went tracting and found an epic gamer guy but also a less epic gamer guy a couple doors down

We knock the door and im like "ayo hows your day going" and then bro's like "terrible now that youre here" and im like sorry dawg i was just like well would you want a message and bros like "how about i slam this door in your face and pray for you how about that" and im just like dude that wouldnt be the first time and then hes like "you should read your bible you got a bible on you" (rookie mistake we didnt have a copy on us we were lackin on supplies we just had books of mormon) so i pull out my phone and he says to read smth in luke 10:1-7 or smth like that it basically says not to go house to house and then elder allen absolutely went ham on this guy bro goes "what about verse 8?" In the most goofy voice of all time and then the guys like "i dont care about verse 8" and then elder allen goes "what about verse... 9?" And then idk how bro keeps a straight face but he ends up going all the way to verse 11 when the guy finally slams the door on us and i was literally tryna not laugh but at the same time not get this guy too riled up cuz we kept goin knocking on more doors and the guy kept walking out of his house looking at us strangely and im like 99% sure he tried calling the police on us but theres like 2 police down here and theyre dawgs (the english elders have talked to them) and they not boutta do anything they dont care

Wednesday was zone conference so we had to wake up at 5 in da morning to get ready cuz we had to be there at 8:15 and we only have one shower and the drive was an hour and a half to yucaipa and it was chill saw a lot of mission buds and we all dawgs yknow so it was way cool i led the music when we sung hymns so there was that

We also exchanged with the zone leaders after zone conference, it was pretty fun and i ate a burrito at wiener schnitzel (it was definitely the most $2 burrito of all time) but the reese's shake was good plus we had some good lessons

Thursday was a good day nothing too crazy happened

Oh yeah something tho is theres been a ton of wind and dust floatin around and everyone is getting super sick including some friends and members, our recent convert might also be getting surgery so hopefully everything goes well with that

Friday was crazy we spent the whole morning putting furniture in a uhaul and elder harris found an old jacket that smells like cigarette smoke so that's interesting (he thinks its really cool tho so he bought some odor removers to see if it comes out)

Then that evening we invited our branch president to a lesson with us to visit a recent convert and afterwards he told us to give a talk on Sunday so that was fun

Saturday was also interesting we took the furniture we put in the uhaul to the house it was moving too and that took a long time to sort everything out and then we went and visited a member who's brother came back (!) from mexico and hes been to church before and came again on sunday so thats dope

But he also talked for forever and we were at their house for 2 hours trying to get through the restoration pamphlet with him (about joseph smith) so we dont get back home from borrego until like 3 pm to shower and stuff and i had to write my talk (it was on the Holy Ghost) and we didnt end up getting to work until like 6 lol

Plus we met a cool guy who moved here from logan utah and he's a member and gonna start wantin to come to church (he didnt come for whatever reason on sunday but thats ok) and then on sunday we randomly tracted into an inactive member and so hopefully this tiny branch is going to start growing which will be epic to see

Also on sunday it was cool cuz a couple we met the other day who didnt seem super solid about church told us they were going to come and we were going to do a chapel (bingo hall) tour with em but then they canceled the lesson and said "we'll see you at church tho" which usually means we'll never see them ever again but then they actually came to church which was crazy and they enjoyed it

Overall a good week

I found a cool quote while writing my talk from pres nelson in april 2022 general conference when he said that some people think truth is relative that it depends on the person but in reality what is true is true and we can learn by the Holy Ghost what is or is not true and it's not for us to decide

Anyway love you guys here's some pics from the week

-look at this corgi

-conch shell

Sacrament talk - Sunday, January 19th, 2025

 Buenos días Hermanos y Hermanas,

Estoy seguro de que ya me conocen, pero soy el Elder Hanson y soy de Orlando Florida. Tengo 20 años y 17 meses en la misión y he servido aquí en Salton Sea desde el Octubre pasado. De alguna manera me las he arreglado para no dar un discurso en la reunión sacramental hasta ahora. Supongo que estoy bastante escondido allí en el piano por lo que el Presidente nunca me vió. Pero ya no pude escapar más y finalmente me acorraló y amablemente me pidió que diera discurso. A todo el mundo le pasa tarde o temprano.

El Espíritu Santo es muy importante. Hablamos del Espíritu Santo mucho y hablamos de sentir el Espíritu Santo cuando tenemos un momento muy impactante en nuestras vidas pero a veces siento que lo tratamos como una cosa para sentir y no lo reconocemos como un ser real, un amigo con quien estar. No sólo sentir algo, sino sentir la presencia de alguien, la presencia de Dios.

El Espíritu Santo es uno de los tres miembros de la Trinidad, con Dios el Padre y Jesucristo. Su trabajo es ser el mensajero de Dios. En Doctrina y Convenios 130:22 dice que

“el Espíritu Santo no tiene un cuerpo de carne y huesos, sino es un personaje de Espíritu. De no ser así, el Espíritu Santo no podría morar en nosotros.”

Siempre que hay algo que necesitamos saber de Dios, lo recibimos por medio del Espíritu Santo. Él nos es enviado para mejorar nuestra comprensión, para advertirnos, para guiarnos. Aunque el mensaje viene por el Espíritu Santo, viene de Dios. Una carta que recibes no viene del cartero. Estás escuchando la palabra de Dios a ti. La revelación personal.

Y porque Dios no te puede mentir, como dice Enós en su único capítulo 1:6 en el Libro de Mormón, el Espíritu Santo es, por tanto, nuestra fuente de toda verdad. Sólo por “el poder del Espíritu Santo podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas.” (Moroni 10:5)

Aún nosotros misioneros no podemos convencer a nadie de nada. Solo estamos transmitiendo el mensaje… del mensaje… de Dios. Solo el Espíritu Santo puede tocar al corazón de alguien y llevar a cabo el conocimiento, la creencia, o una conversión verdadera a Jesucristo.

Ni ningún profeta enseña por sí mismo. Dice en el Nuevo Testamento en 2 Pedro 1:21

“porque la profecía nunca fue dada por voluntad humana, sino que los santos hombres de Dios hablaron siendo inspirados por el Espíritu Santo.”

Así era como Dios trabajaba en los tiempos de la Biblia y así es como Dios trabaja ahora.

Por eso es muy importante el recibir el Don del Espíritu Santo y ser confirmado miembro de la Iglesia de Jesucristo con su autoridad. Sin ese Don podemos sentir el Espíritu Santo en no más las ocasiones muy especiales cuando aprendemos de Dios y estamos buscando verdades del Evangelio. Pero con el Don del Espíritu Santo lo tenemos a Él– otra vez, ni una cosa ni objeto sino una persona real que trabaja directamente con Dios– con nosotros para siempre. No importa lo que estemos haciendo. Y cuando no estamos haciendo lo que debemos, el nunca se da por vencido con nosotros. Jesucristo nunca se da por vencido con nosotros.

En un mundo tan difícil de navegar, y cada día es peor, el Presidente Nelson nos dijo este consuelo en la conferencia General de Octubre de 2022.

“Algunos nos quieren hacer creer que la verdad es relativa, que cada persona debe determinar por sí misma lo que es verdadero. Tal creencia no es más que una expresión de deseo de quienes, además, piensan equivocadamente que no serán responsables ante Dios.”

La verdad no está para que la inventemos nosotros: Dios ya la ha puesto ante nosotros y quiere que la descubramos por nosotros mismos con la ayuda del Espíritu Santo. No vamos a poder sobrevivir espiritualmente sin su ayuda. Tienes que confiar en el Espíritu Santo– o sea, confiar en Dios– cuando tomas decisiones importantes. Por nuestra cuenta, no siempre podemos saber qué es lo mejor para nosotros; solo podemos adivinar. Pero con el Espíritu Santo y el don del Espíritu Santo, podemos estar seguros y conocer la verdad de todas las cosas, no solo de algunas cosas, evitar las trampas del adversario en los últimos días y, en última instancia, acercarnos más a Dios como familias e individuos.

Yo lo sé, porque he estudiado las escrituras y he visto con mis propios ojos lo que pasa con la gente que confía a Dios y con la gente que no confía en Él. Dios nunca te dejará sin consuelo si siempre escuchas a Su mensajero.

Tener el Don del Espíritu Santo en mi vida ha sido una bendición para mi. Siento que a veces soy una persona olvidadiza y, especialmente ahora en la misión, he sentido Su presencia con recordatorios sencillos que tengo que hacer algo, visitar a alguien, llamar a alguien, hacer una tarea, compartir algo con alguien, casi como si una bombilla se prendiera en mi cabeza. A veces ya estoy acostado en cama a punto de dormirme y siento del Espíritu que tengo que hacer algo porque lo voy a olvidar en la mañana cuando me levante y sé que tengo que seguir la indicación. Casi me olvidé de escribir este discurso (no es cierto)

Recuerdo cuando recibí mi llamamiento misional y estaba bien emocionado de recibirlo. Quería servir en un lugar fuera de los Estados Unidos. Mis dos mejores elecciones eran Suecia y Australia. Suecia porque tengo antepasados de allí y Australia sólo porque sería bien cool. Está tan lejos pero todavía hablan inglés! Pero era “eh” de la idea de servir en el mismo país. Pero cuando leí mi llamamiento y dijo que yo iba a servir en la misión de San Bernardino California, sentí el Espíritu Santo diciéndome que aquí es donde debo estar– sin decirme ni una palabra. Pero yo sé que fue el Espíritu. Y he visto tantos milagros y ahora sé que aquí es mi segundo hogar y tengo que ayudar a todos que quieran escuchar que Dios les quiere– tal como yo les quiero.

Sé que el Espíritu Santo existe. No les puedo decir como llegué a este punto en mi misión sin su ayuda cada día. No es fácil. La vida no es fácil. Y es peligroso espiritualmente en este mundo andar solos al menos que queremos crecer para aprender la verdad de todas las cosas.

Sé que Jesucristo y Dios les aman a todo del mundo. Todos ustedes. Por eso nos ha dado una manera segura sin ni poca posibilidad de fallar de saber de ese amor a través del Espíritu Santo. Sé que Él les ayudará superar los tiempos difíciles y regocijarse con ustedes en los tiempos felices.

En el nombre de Jesucristo,

Amen.

January 13th, 2025 - 73rd Email - We got nerfed

Hey

This week wasnt as crazy as the week before but pretty crazy

The new mission president got announced (he comes in at the beginning of July) and his name is President Oligschlaeger (it's like Dutch or something) he seems like a dope guy from Utah who likes to hike and stuff so that's pretty exciting

Oh yeah idk if yall have seen the news but LA is kinda on fire rn and we are completely okay i mean we're pretty far from LA and honestly if this place caught fire it would all be gone in a day but it seems like people are trying to start a wildfire every night we see people holding massive bonfires and the winds have been insane

Like theres a chain link fence around our house and the wind's been blowing it around and it moves so much it sounds like someones watching an action movie outside like transformers type beat

There actually have been pretty brutal power outages around the mission though (not here) for fire-related reasons or something i really dont know and some places were out for like nearly a week (redlands) so that was crazy

Another crazy thing that happened was the english elders got their truck taken away (jk)

It needed to get fixed because the english elders are goofy goobers and we drove up to palm desert on wednesday to drop it off and now we're sharing a car (the mission is running really low on cars) and considering how large our area is it has been quite the handicap so we end up just swapping it every once in a while to go contacting and tracting and we walked around one of the towns here for about four hours while the english elders took our truck and then on saturday we walked 40 minutes between lessons it's definitely been an experience and we still have no word on when we're getting the other truck back

We've also been dealing with a lot of drama with out friends and members so that's been really interesting to say the least we been doin the best we can to help but we aint licensed therapists or anything best we can do is pull up and read scriptures its just kinda funny when literal teenagers with little dating experience are giving marriage and family advice to grown adults

Also we had like 8 solid people who said they were coming to church like for sure for sure and then they all canceled on us, a member went to the hospital and her son and his wife went with her on saturday, another guy got home super late from work (he works an hour away, got home at midnight, realized he left his work keys at work and had to eat something, drive all the way back to work, get the keys to lock the building, and drive home.

But its ok theres always next week

There was this one guy who has like this really old town kinda bell in front of his house that he latee said his dad got it at someones house in palm desert they were gonna throw it away and elder harris really wanted to ring it but bro hadnt answered the door yet and i was like "thats gonna be loud dont bother em" but he did it and it was really loud and funny and the guy walks out and is like "hey wassup youre the first guys to ring that thing" this guy was so cool we chatted it up for like a good minute and he took a book of mormon was down to come to church but his mom said she doesnt like "strangers" coming to his house or something so he wont be able to progress regrettably (hes a grown adult too like why is his mom being an opp) but its ok because he specifically asked to keep the book

On sunday we also had a cool activity for recent converts that was really good we brought a friend who didnt come to church (we guilt tripped him into coming because he didnt come to church) it was all the way up in bermuda dunes and we also got a recent convert to go and some recent converts in the stake spoke about their experiences and it was honestly really good

Yeah honestly thats been my week not so much to report its been pretty repetitive all in all walking a lot and stuff

Picture time

-random lady's bird (we cleaned her driveway and weeded her garden)

-pretty flowers lol

-look at this dog

January 6th, 2025 - 72nd Email - Oh boy

Hey

Another one

I feel like i sent the last one just a week ago

But it was actually a whole year ago

So uh

Buckle up this is a long one

Happy new year! That kinda happened

It was lowkey pretty weird and not very eventful

Hung out with a member and played some dominoes (he taught us how to play) (now we might be playing dominoes like every single day before bed) on new years eve

Oh wait it actually was pretty eventful i lied

There were hecka fireworks it was insane and some gunshots too like everyone was talkin bout "ayo you heard those guns last night" and we were like "yeah, actually waddaheck happened" and one of our friends said a car across the street from them got hit by a gunshot and honestly im surprised they didnt try to sue these people out here have no respect for their neighbors sometimes frfr

Anyway

On monday (i cant believe that was a whole week ago much less a year) we were gonna have this lesson with our epic friend daniel but he thought our lesson was supposed to be on wednesday so we went to the church for nothing but then this random guy pulled up like we were boutta leave and then he walks in with a whole bulletproof vest and we're super confused and he's like "nah dw i aint no police i just wear this for fun" and we're like "ok" and hes sayin how he'd recently moved from barstow a couple days before but also at the same time said probably 5 minutes prior "yeah ive lived here for a while and ive never had the chance to check out this here building" and then we were left super confused this guy rambled on and on he was definitely drunk or high and also driving (which idk about you guys but im pretty sure thats bad or something) but idek what bro was ramblin on about but it was something hilarious because me and elder harris were dyin afterwards like what the heck just happened type beat

And then monday evening elder howard from the english companionship got called to be the new tech elder for the mission so bro's gone and he was gone since tuesday he got a call from president at like 10:40 monday night and had to pack up everything to leave at noon on tuesday so we had a quick lesson in the morning and drove up with the english elders and elder taylor tagged along and then for two days we were a trio so that was cool those days were absolutely jam packed and we had like no numbers by thursday when transfers happened

Like ok tuesday we had to drive all the way up to ranchita (an hour away) then drive back down a half hour for a dinner appointment in borrego springs and it was all really close because the gate to our dinner appt closed at 7 and we literally pulled up at like 6:59 elder taylor was zoomin (within the bounds of our speed inhibiting machine in our car) and it was like tfw you submit a homework assignment at 11:59 but 5 hours earlier and we made it and had a dope dinner and ngl the gate was lowkey broken getting out our truck like barely fit through that thing it was nearly as bad as getting this truck through the taco bell drive thru (literally impossible challenge)

So we did a ton of driving that day cuz to drop off elder howard we also drove all the way up to cabazon (also an hour away)

And then we got home about 8:30 (we were supposed to be home at 8 to be safe but we were like driving or something) for our special missionwide for new years eve to announce whether or not we hit the mission year baptismal goal of 1001! We actually got 1007 so that was super cool to be able to spend an entire year working towards this goal and actually getting it was really dope

Wednesday we did a lot of service as a trio, started by walking this lady's dog (its a super big dog and she has trouble doing it herself) and apparently the english elders walk her dog like all the time

Then we spent like two hours at this british lady's house tuning guitars (im not kidding she had like 20 guitars) and ukeleles (she had like 8 of those) and it was cool to talk to her about music and also she has lots of birds (which apparently were like special needs birds which i guess is a thing) they were very loud but cool and she gave elder taylor a banjo ukelele (which is exactly what it sounds like)

And we also hung out with some members and wished people a happy new year so that was good

Thursday was transfers so we went to go pick up elder taylor's new companion elder ogden (super cool guy ive served around him before we've had our share of adventures together in san bernardino)

But we were confused because none of us were leaving (all three of us stayed im still with elder harris and elder taylor is chillin and i mean elder howard was long gone)

So we were like "if we aint goin to transfers will you even be getting a new comp" and i wasnt tryna be a trio this transfer but we ended up just goin to pick him up in indio (thanks president for not making us wake up at 5 to get ready to go to transfers)

Met this lady who was baptized two years ago on friday

Weve been tryna get in contact with this lady for months and we finally did

It was funny tho because we pull up and knock the door to no answer and like two seconds later a police officer pulls up and goes "how long you guys been here" and we're like "two minutes lol" and bro's super chill he's just like "yeah we got a 911 call from this place" and so we're like dang it what did we do and then the lady opens the door to the police officer (but not us? Fake fr) and she's like i dint call no 911 so she calls her son and hes like "oh yeah i buttdialed 911 my bad" and then all was chill

So we came back later that day, met her son and his girl (idk if its his wife) but we started teaching them and they were chill and listenin and stuff so they told us to come back the next day to talk with all three of em

It was good they said there was some contention in their household and our lesson really made them feel a lot better and they were really down to come to church on sunday

Until apparently they got in a massive argument sunday morning (it was like really really really bad) and the son's girl had to move out of the house (and she was on date for baptism lol) and none of them could come to church obviously and the mom almost put a restraining order on her son (but she didnt) which sucked but after church we went over to make sure everything was okay since they didnt come and we were at the lady's (the member) house for like 2 hours while she relayed the story and we read some scriptures with her to make her feel better

Also if you were wondering it's $40 to impound a dog here idk if you'll ever need to use that information but we learned that this week

Went tracting with a chill member was fun

Also our friend daniel went to mexicali this weekend to visit family (i guess its a thing here to just spontaneously teleport to mexicali on command) so he couldnt come to church

Oh yeah on saturday we went to bed really late

So we went back up to ranchita (it was really cold up there i liked it) for a dinner appointment at 7 pm but the food wasnt read until nearly 8 so we ate and then left at 9 pm but it's an hour drive away and we still had to set up the church building (bingo hall) for church on sunday (we do that) and so we dont get home until 10:30 lol

Okay i think thats nearly everything transfers were kinda wild but i feel like with everything else that happened it almost nearly just got drowned out lol my follow up trainee elder allen is my district leader now so thats cool

Another transfer in borrego means ive been in every area 3 transfers still batting 1.000 going 4 for 4

Aight bye lol im tired as im sure you are too after reading allat

Pictures!

-us and the garcias (branch president) after dinner (elder taylor took it so he wasnt in it rip)

-goat

-me walking the dog

December 30th, 2024 - 71st Email - Blackout

Hey

Ive been a missionary for a while now lol

Also happy new year and allat fun jazz

Yknow lately i havent really talked about how spanish is coming along but l lowkey have actually been getting really good at it idk how good you have to be to say you're bilingual but I guess im basically there

I mean writing in spanish doesnt really prove anything because i could just be using a translator for all you folks know

Anyway

A lot happened in the last like 4 days since the last pday

Since

Last pday was like

Christmas

Wow its already been a while since Christmas

Lowkey it feels like it was just yesterday idk ive already eaten all the candy my mom got me (im like that) so i guess we boutta start the new year strong with a sugar high

Also we had something cool happen on saturday

So theres this old lady in borrego sprongs that we go visit every once in a while and its pretty cool we bring her food that another member makes for her cuz she has parkinsons and cant really do a whole lotta stuf on her own but its aight and she's real sweet

Her brother just moved her from the mexico and he was visiting her when we pulled up for our regularly scheduled visit and he was like ayo who u and we were like da missionaries (in spanish) and then he kinda started ranting about his life and then we were like aight dawg (in spanish) you tryna get baptized (just totally cuz him off lol) (its chill he actually really liked us from the start cuz we were bringing his sister food and he liked that we were serving others) so bro is in his like 70s and we quickly ran into the issue of the fact that bro is hard of hearing and we were practically yelling everything and then when he didnt hear us his sister was always like "theyre talking to you" cuz she hears just fine their dynamic is lowkey hilarious and then he was actually down for the idea of getting baptized and he came to church and he's super dope and asked questions and shared his feelings and wants to meet with us again!

No we didnt have a blackout i just was mentioning that i finish my blackout year (full calendar year as a missionary) with the end of 2024 which is pretty wild that i started this year as a missionary and im gonna finish it as a missionary and then i got until july which is wild that we're on the last leg

also we are super close to the 1001 goal idk if we've hit it yet but as of yesterday we only needed a couple left so pray that somebody decides to get baptized on a slow tuesday

Met another lady too that wants to quit smoking and was down to come to church so that was sick tracting miracles frfr

Transfers are also on thursday which is crazy this transfer flew by we dk the news until wednesday morning about who leaves tho

Uhhhhh

Idk this week was weird like everybody was outta town

We bible bashed with someone yesterday that was funny

This morning our recent convert had us take a fridge to indio so we did that idk its just a funny thought driving with a fridge in the trunk bed

The word fridge is funny lol ive never really thought about it that deep but i was like "wow ive never lifted a fridge before" and it got the whole squad laughing cuz i said "fridge" all goofy-like

Ngl i took a fat nap on friday

So friday was deep cleaning day and i lowkey had a really bad headache so i cleaned some of the bathroom and then i was like "hey elder harris i feel like absolute garbage rn im gonna go take a 20 minute nap" and i ended up waking up an hour and a half later cuz i slept through the alarm and elder harris did an insane deep clean of our shower but at least my headache was gone

Ok bye lol im gonna miss borrego so much when i leave

Idk if ive talked about how infamous this area is across the mission because of just how out in the middle of nowhere it is (probably the least populated area in the mission) so im really glad ive been able to serve here ive enjoyed the long drives a lot actually and i love the people here so i hope i stay another

Ok bye fr

Pictures!

-paper clip in french is trombone

-deep clean fit

-tough mileage number