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